Father dies after routine vasectomy
02/03/2005
I would like to thank you again for the speedy and sensitive way in which you have dealt with this matter. I would have no hesitation in recommending your firm to anyone in the future.
Pamela, Castleford
Jeremy Abbotts died of blood poisoning days after he underwent what was expected to be a routine vasectomy operation.
The thirty-seven year old contracted an infection after the operation which his GP began to treat with antibiotics. The following day his wife called an ambulance and he was taken to hospital where he later died of septicaemia.
At Mr Abbott's inquest today, the Birmingham Coroner concluded that his death was caused by multiple organ failure as a result of septicaemia and that Mr Abbott had a scrotal infection following a recent vasectomy. The coroner specifically stated that he was not able to say where the infection had come from or when it developed.
Jeremy was a sales director for a Birmingham based company and he lived with his wife Karen and two children, in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands.
He had the vasectomy at the Sir Robert Peel Hospital in Tamworth as an NHS patient on Friday March the 19th 2004.
The following week, six days after the procedure, Jeremy came home from work feeling ill and said he felt like he had flu, went straight to bed and was sick during the night.
The next morning Jeremy was still unwell, and Karen called out a GP from their surgery. The GP said Jeremy had an infection caused by the operation and prescribed antibiotics, explaining that once he started the tablets everything would be fine.
On Saturday morning Jeremy's condition was worse, and Karen called for an ambulance.
Jeremy was taken to Good Hope Hospital, Accident and Emergency Department where a diagnosis of septic shock was made. The infection had spread into his blood; it had taken a fatal hold on his body and his organs began to fail.
Jeremy suffered a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated and taken to intensive care where he was put on life support. His condition deteriorated further and twelve days after his vasectomy, Jeremy died of septicaemia.
Solicitor Richard Follis of health specialists Alexander Harris, who represented the family at the inquest said: "The hospital was unable to isolate the bacteria from the infection because the antibiotics that Jeremy had taken had killed them. The family naturally want to know why Jeremy died and where the infection came from that killed a previously healthy father and husband".
Notes to Editors:
The family have requested that all media enquiries should be made directly to the media management department at Alexander Harris on 08700 77 88 77 and that their privacy be respected. Photographs of the family or Mr Abbotts are not available.
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