Demands for answers after inquest

12:00pm Thursday 28th February 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

The death of a dinner lady after a routine gall bladder operation has left her family, and a coroner, demanding answers about the quality of nursing care she received.

Sheila Elderfield, 59, of Pine Grove, Bushey, died at Watford General Hospital on October 24 last year, after rapidly developing an infection following complications with the removal of her gall bladder.

An inquest into her death yesterday was adjourned as coroner Edward Thomas asked for a further nursing report.

Mrs Elderfield's husband Tony, a taxi driver, said he did not blame surgeon John Meyrick-Thomas, but argued that nurses and doctors could have noticed symptoms of the infection earlier.

Dr Meyrick-Thomas said the speed at which Mrs Elderfield's condition had deteriorated was "almost unprecedented" and that he was happy with her test results until days before her death.

During the initial operation, Mrs Elderfield sustained a small cut in her bile duct, leading to Dr Meyrick-Thomas changing from a key hole operation to open surgery.

He said the rest of the procedure had gone as planned and that he had informed Mr Elderfield of the complications.

Mr Elderfield said: "He was open and honest about everything that happened."

The family questioned why they were told by nurses that Mrs Elderfield was in a "reasonable" condition when they found she had been receiving oxygen and was "distraught, wet and clammy", with bile continuing to leak from the operation wound.

They also asked why she was placed on a gynaecology ward during her recovery and not a surgical ward.

Dr Meyrick-Thomas said: "The ideal is to have patients in the ward that is most suited to their particular problem or operation, but the reality is that that is not always possible. We are always short of beds."

He added that if the hospital trust believed the ward was unsuitable, Mrs Elderfield would not have been kept there.

Mr Elderfield expressed concerns that his wife was left "in soiled clothing for hours on end", which Dr Meyrick-Thomas said was due to bile continuing to leak from her wound after it was cleaned up.

There is an ongoing investigation into the nursing care she received.

Consultant pathologist Andrew Cody, who carried out the post-mortem examination, said the cause of death was bronchial pneumonia caused by peritonitis, which resulted from the colosystectomy operation.

Mr Elderfield said he had expected his wife to be out of hospital in a day and that they had planned to go on holiday.

He said: "Everything happened so quickly we were so shocked".

"I need the answers." he added.