Man to sue after death from operation complications
24 Jun 2009
A man has said that he is to sue after his wife died from
complications relating to her recent gallstone surgery.
Barbara Dockery, 56, was admitted to Good Hope Hospital in June
2008, where she was placed under the care of gastroenterologist Dr
Mohammed Ahmed, the Birmingham Mail reports.
He advised her to have an endoscopic retrograde
cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) procedure, which involves having
an endoscope inserted into the mouth and down through the gut to
the bile duct.
Medical instruments can then be passed inside the endoscope to
allow the surgeon to remove gallstones from the bile duct.
However, shortly after the procedure, Ms Dockery developed
post-ERCP pancreatitis. She died on July 10th.
Her husband Terry claims that Dr Ahmed did not advise Ms Dockery of
other procedures which may have carried less risk and that he
should not have pushed for the ERCP surgery.
"I still can't come to terms with what happened. We were told this
was going to be a routine surgical procedure," he commented.
Mr Dockery is now to sue officials he holds responsible for
clinical negligence.
A spokesperson for the hospital has said that Ms Dockery's care was
thoroughly investigated and that it is confident its procedures are
"robust".
Olivia Lawson, a partner at Hodge Jones & Allen and a
specialist in clinical negligence claims, commented: "Here at HJA
we a have a dedicated team of clinical negligence specialists -
many of whom have medical training.
"We are able to advise anyone who may find themselves in a similar
situation and we can also help patients through the often difficult
pre-litigation complaints process to get early answers."
