Latest news with #heartprocedure
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Police investigate 11 heart operation deaths at NHS hospital
Police are investigating the deaths of 11 patients who died after the same heart procedure at an NHS hospital. Families have criticised Castle Hill Hospital, near Hull, for failing to tell them about the complications during surgeries which were found to have contributed to several of their deaths despite not appearing on their death certificates. The dead patients suffered avoidable harm after staff made errors during operations, according to documents seen by the BBC. Humberside Police said an investigation was 'in the very early stages' but that no arrests had been made. The patients had been receiving a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implant, or TAVI, in a procedure which replaces damaged heart valves between 2019 and 2023. Patients and families were said to have been unaware of the department's TAVI mortality rate – which was three times higher than the UK average. A review from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in 2020 was the first of three to highlight the level of concern. Families of patients only became aware of the complications after being approached by the BBC following the publication of the reports. Dorothy Readhead, 87, died after medics put a catheter in a blocked artery which then tore a major blood vessel. She was on the surgery table for six hours, lost five litres of blood and had been awake throughout as only local anaesthetic is used. However, her death certificate made no mention of the procedure. This was criticised by the RCP's second review in 2024, when they said the procedure had 'led to the patient's death'. 'A guinea pig' Christine Rymer, her daughter, told the BBC: 'None of that was told to us. None of it. 'It just feels as if mum was a guinea pig, which is not nice to think about.' Seven cardiac consultants wrote they were 'very concerned about the safety and transparency of the TAVI service' in a letter to the hospital's chief executive in 2021, following the deaths, in less than six months, of four of the 11 patients. The RCP's second review of all 11 deaths found there had been 'poor clinical decision-making', that crucial details were missing from some death certificates alongside a failure to include 'an accurate description' of what happened. Brian Hunter, from Grimsby, died in October 2021. His daughter, Tracy Fisher, said: 'We were led to believe that dad had a heart attack on the table and unfortunately passed away. 'To find out three years down the line that what your father actually passed from wasn't the truth is torturous.' Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH), which runs the hospital, told the BBC: 'We understand families may have questions and we are happy to answer those directly.' 'The report offered a number of actions for improvement and we have delivered against all of those since it was shared with us.' It added that its TAVI-related mortality rates were now in line with national figures.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
County Durham women first in North East to have heart procedure
A patient who was one of a region's first to have a new heart procedure says it helped her get her life Wells, from Peterlee, and Lindel Carre, from Durham, were the first in north-east England to receive a tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER), at Middlesbrough's James Cook University is designed to treat tricuspid regurgitation, a condition where one of the heart's valves becomes leaky, causing fatigue, leg swelling, and breathlessness. Ms Wells said she felt she "didn't have a life" before the procedure but she "didn't think that way now – that's the difference it's made to me". The retired nurse previously had a successful mitral valve replacement using open heart surgery in 2021. However, she began experiencing increasing breathlessness in recent years."Leading up to Christmas, I was wrapping presents with family, and I was thinking 'this is the last time I'm going to be doing this'," she said."I could barely walk three or four steps without having to stop to get my breath back." Tricuspid regurgitation is usually difficult to manage with medication alone and open heart surgery can be too high risk for older is a safer alternative and involves inserting a small clip through a vein in the groin to reduce the leak in the valve. 'Incredibly rewarding' Ms Wells and Ms Carre had the procedure on 6 Carre, 83, said she saw a lot of improvements almost straight retired teacher had been suffering with the heaviness of her legs caused by her worsening valve condition. "I have much more energy, no breathlessness, and I can drive further than I could before – I'm more confident and more independent," she procedures were performed by the hospital's TEER team, led by cardiology consultants Paul Williams, Seth Vijayan and Richard Williams said it was "incredibly rewarding" to see patients experience such an improvement in their quality of life. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
