Surgery death woman 'failed by system'

Published on Friday 9 May 2008 22:17

A WOMAN who bled to death in a hospital after having breast cancer surgery was failed by the system, a court heart yesterday.

Surgeon Michael Dixon said Marlene Wightman had been let down by the unit which cared for her at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital in March 2006.

But he said the failings were probably above any single person, pointing to inadequate training of nurses looking after cancer patients after surgery.

Mrs Wightman, 49, from Dalkeith, Midlothian, died the day after a mastectomy of her left breast following substantial blood loss.

At a fatal accident inquiry at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Mr Dixon was asked by solicitor-advocate Elaine Motion how he felt about Mrs Wightman's death after he operated on her.

"What is clear is that the system failed," he said. "The unit I am proud of and have faith in let Marlene down."

Mr Dixon, a consultant surgeon at the Western for 14 years, said the issue was not just a question of consultants being on call after hours, but concerned other matters raised on numerous occasions.

He added: "The failing is probably way above anybody you have appearing in this court."

Mr Dixon said patients were being put in the hands of people who were "exposed" and did not have experience.

"I would like to feel that the people looking after our patients have experience of looking after surgery patients.

"The reality is the majority of nurses appointed to the wards have no previous experience of oncology," he said.

Mr Dixon said he and his colleagues had no say in the appointment of the nurses working in the unit.

"The nurses would like more training," he said. "I think they should have experience of surgery or get training to ensure they are able to connect with the problems and issues like this. I think it is important for the nurses themselves".

In a previous hearing, Mr Dixon told the court that Mrs Wightman was "tattooed on his brain" after her death.

He said that she was the only patient he had operated on who had died.

The inquiry heard that the surgeon could have saved Mrs Wightman's life if he had been told about worrying levels of blood loss.

Mr Dixon previously told the court that "alarm bells should have been ringing" after Mrs Wightman began losing blood in the hours after the mastectomy.

At an earlier hearing, the nurse in charge of the hospital ward admitted it was short-staffed and that workers had been "stressed out".

Claire Smith, 31, a senior staff nurse, said the ward was normally staffed by a charge nurse and four other nurses. If the charge nurse was absent, the next senior nurse took over. On the day in question, the charge nurse had called off sick and she was in charge.

Members of Mrs Wightman's family had previously told the inquiry that checks on her were not done while they were there.

The inquiry, which has sat for nine days, continues.