Routine operation death

An inquest is due to open today (9 am Tuesday 25th April) into the death of 71-year-old Tamworth pensioner, Lily Martin, who died from severe post-operative bleeding following a routine operation to remove her gall bladder.

Removal of gall bladder surgery complications

Birmingham Coroner, Aiden Cotter, is due to hear that mother of five, Mrs Martin, formerly of Manston View, Tamworth, was admitted to Good Hope Hospital with a history of gallstones and associated jaundice. She underwent surgery on the afternoon of 25th October 2005 for the removal of her gall bladder (cholecystectomy.)

During surgery it is believed that an area in the region of her gall bladder was inadvertently lacerated in two places but went undetected for 11 hours. The alarm was only raised when at 05.50 the following morning, nurses found that Mrs Martin had suffered a cardiac arrest.

She was resuscitated by a crash team and rushed back to theatre where the bleeding points were found by an emergency team of surgeons. Unfortunately, Mrs Martins condition continued to deteriorate and she died later that night in intensive care.

Surgery complications solicitor

Victoria Blankstone, a solicitor with the Birmingham office of national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, said: Lily Martins family are understandably very distressed by the circumstances of her death as they believed that she was undergoing a routine operation and had every reason to expect she would make a normal recovery and return home within a few days.

Inquest into surgery complications

We very much hope the inquest will be able to uncover exactly what happened to Mrs Martin. It would appear from the hospital records that there were problems with the post-operative observations that night and Mrs Martin may have been bleeding internally for too long before action was taken.

It is possible, therefore, that opportunities to take her back to theatre earlier, to provide life-saving treatment, may have been missed.

Mrs Martins daughter, Janet Chattaway, said: My family are absolutely devastated by her death. My mother was an extremely fit and active woman and she was the main carer for her husband, Tony, who is disabled.

This is a double tragedy for our family because as a result of my mothers death, my father has now had to go into a nursing home. We very much hope that the inquest will provide us with some much needed answers as to why a routine operation apparently went so terribly wrong.