Lawyer Calls For Lessons To Be Learned After Anaesthetic Death

27 Jan 2010

Victoria Blankstone of Irwin Mitchell has called for lessons to be learned after a 72-year-old Birmingham man died when a hospital failed to follow basic anaesthetic procedures.

Anthony Beard was admitted to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital for a routine hernia operation on 28th March 2009, but while under general anaesthetic he aspirated the contents of his stomach into his lungs. Mr Beard was moved to the hospital’s Critical Care Unit but sadly died 17 days later.

An inquest today returned a narrative verdict “that the deceased died as a consequence of aspiration of stomach contents”.

Victoria Blankstone of Irwin Mitchell's medical negligence team commented: “This tragic death was in our expert’s view totally avoidable. The anaesthetist who was responsible for Mr Beard’s care failed to follow a very basic anaesthesia procedure known as rapid sequence induction, which would have prevented this incident from happening.”

Mr Beard was first admitted to the hospital on 24th March 2009 with severe abdominal pain. A scan revealed problems around a previous hernia operation but surgery was not carried out for five days. During this time Mr Beard was sick on a number of occasions and suffered symptoms of a painful and swollen abdomen.

When Mr Beard was in surgery the anaesthetic team did not follow correct procedures, despite being aware of the risk of aspiration of stomach contents.

Victoria Blankstone added: “Mr Beard’s family will be taking time to review today’s inquest findings before deciding on their next course of action which may include taking legal action against the Hospital Trust”.

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