Family Devastated After Mother-Of-Three Dies During Botched Routine Surgery
19/10/2009
A Macclesfield man has spoken of his devastation after losing his partner of 15 years following a botched routine surgical procedure at an NHS hospital.
Kevin Jones lost his partner Christine Burgess on the operating table after she arrived at the Accident and Emergency department on May 9 2006 in Macclesfield District General Hospital, complaining of severe back pain and numbness in her leg.
She was subsequently transferred to Salford’s Hope Hospital for surgery on a prolapsed disc, a routine procedure to remove the disc hernia.
Mrs Burgess later passed away on the operating table after her heart vessels were fatally damaged during the spinal surgery which was carried out by Mr Jallul, a locum consultant neurosurgeon, on May 11 2006.
Mr. Jones has spoken out about their future plans to move abroad to France when they had retired. The couple had already bought a property to relocate to.
“We had lots of plans for the future, but now there is just a hole in my life,” he said. “Time hasn’t eased the pain of losing her and we all still think of her every day.
“She was the life and soul of every family gathering and due to the failings of the surgeon she has lost out on those precious moments and the chance to see her grandchildren grow up.
“I wanted people to know what happened to Christine and to bring to light the errors in her surgery to help make sure this doesn’t happen again to anyone else.”
Mr Jones was subsequently awarded an undisclosed sum in a successful medical negligence claim against the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.
A leading clinical negligence specialist at law firm Irwin Mitchell, Tessa Hodson, represented Mr. Jones and his family in legal action and highlighted the serious and eventually fatal failings in the care of Mrs. Burgess. She insisted that lessons must be learnt from this tragic case so that the mistakes are not repeated.
She said: "Christine's death was an unexpected and tragic loss which has left her family devastated. Patient safety must be a priority and one of the reasons Irwin Mitchell were instructed to investigate into the treatment provided by Mr Jallul, was to obtain answers as to why, what should have been a straightforward surgical procedure proved to be fatal.
“The response from Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and its representatives, the NHS Litigation Authority, has been extremely disappointing. Mr Jones attempted to resolve matters on numerous occasions without resorting to Court proceedings but the Trust failed to provide any substantive response until a court case was started. It took in excess of 12 months to reach a settlement, which could have been dealt with much earlier, saving Mr Jones and his family from even more distress.”
After the operation, Mrs. Burgess would have recovered in a matter of months before being able to return to her job working as a financial assistant for chemical company, Ciba, based in Macclesfield.
Mr. Jones said: “Christine had no apprehensions about the operation, she had been reassured she was fit and healthy and it was meant to be just a simple procedure. When we were told that she’d died we were completely devastated. It makes me so angry to think about the failings in her care, but also how we have been treated since by the Trust, we have just not been able to get any answers.
“We are concerned that the case hasn’t been investigated thoroughly by the General Medical Council (GMC) and that this could happen again. Mr. Jallul has basically just lit the blue touch paper and we’ve had to suffer the consequences.”
Tessa added: “Unfortunately, Mr. Jones has also had to cope with what he considers to be an ineffective investigation into Mr. Jallul's practise by the GMC.
“Mr. Jones and his family understandably feel let down and angry at the way in which both the NHS and the GMC have handled what was already a very difficult situation for them.
“Their questions arising from the circumstances of Christine's death have been answered to some extent as a result of investigations into the legal claim brought by Mr. Jones. However, the Trust responsible for Mr. Jallul, provided nothing by way of answers and the investigation conducted by the GMC appears to be flawed.”
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