Widow ‘asked surgeon for answers’

A GRIEVING widow whose husband died after a routine operation has told how a surgeon “shrugged” his shoulders when she asked him what had gone wrong.

Alice Johnstone, 53, said general surgeon Joseph Cumming told her he believed her husband George’s gallbladder removal surgery had gone well.

Mr Johnstone, 54, a company director of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, had gone to Monklands Hospital in the town on 9 May, 2006.

He had been expected to be released from hospital the next day. But following the procedure his condition deteriorated rapidly and he contracted blood poisoning and died on 11 May.

His death and the deaths of two other people who had similar operations is being investigated by Sheriff Robert Dickson at a fatal accident inquiry.

Yesterday, Mr Johnstone’s widow told how she and other family members had demanded answers from Mr Cumming.

She said: “Mr Cumming had his hands in his pockets and we said to him, ‘What’s happening here?’

“He shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I don’t know, everything went well.’

Mrs Johnstone recalled how another doctor told her soon after that her husband was critically ill and could die.

She added: “He told us the blood was going septic.

“When he said George could die, I just ran out. Mr Cumming came back and said he had had a word with his colleagues but said he didn’t think it was feasible to go back in and operate at this particular time. He died that night.”

Mrs Johnstone had earlier told the inquiry that she had spotted bleeding on her husband a day after his operation and said he had been complaining about having stomach pains.

However, she said when she raised this with nurses she was told this was “normal”.

The inquiry, which is expected to last for four weeks, is also examining the deaths of Andrew Ritchie, 62, and Agnes Nicol, 50.

The inquiry at Cumbernauld Justice of the Peace court continues today.