The family of a 95-year-old war hero who died after a rupture in his spleen was left undetected for hours say “lessons need to be learnt”.

John Glossop died at Watford General Hospital on April 6, 2015, 19 days after falling while trying a lift a suitcase onto his bed during a visit to his daughter and son-in-law’s home in St Albans.

A consultant at the hospital told an inquest at Hertfordshire Coroner’s Court today that an earlier operation could have saved his life.

Hertfordshire Coroner Geoffrey Sullivan also concluded the time it took to diagnose the injury was a contributing factor in Mr Glossop’s death.

The inquest heard the Wimbledon-born great grandfather was rushed to hospital on March 18 at 9.34am and taken for a scan to ensure there was no bleeding on his brain.

His family say he complained of “severe abdominal pain” but it wasn’t until 2.28pm that doctors discovered he had a “shattered spleen”.

He immediately had an operation to remove his spleen but was unable to recover after losing five and a half litres of blood during the surgery, as well as developing low blood pressure, a chest infection and cardiac failure during his stay in hospital.

Son-in-law Robert Yeldham believes he would have survived if the rupture had been spotted earlier.

He said: “It was a better result than I thought it would be but the hospital needs to learn from this mistake.

“My father-in-law was a survivor and I do think he would not have died if he had been treated for his spleen earlier.”

During the inquest, Mr Sullivan questioned whether Mr Glossop’s life could have been saved if he was brought into the operating theatre a couple of hours earlier.

Dr Bahrani, the consultant general surgeon at Watford General Hospital, was asked the question repeatedly before he replied: “It is likely it could have made a difference.”

Dr Rachel Palmer, consultant and clinical director in emergency medicine at West Hertfordshire Trust, added the main priority when Mr Glossop was brought into hospital was to check whether he had developed internal bleeding in his brain.

She said: “It is incredibly unusual for someone to fall from a standing height and rupture their spleen.

“He had so many things going against him and age was one of them.”

Mr Sullivan ruled that Mr Glossop “died as a result of an injury sustained in a fall but his death was contributed to by the time taken to diagnose the abdominal bleed”.

He also apologised for the “unexplained delay” it took to bring the case to court.