Tragedy of worker in blood clot death, 21
A 21-year-old customer service advis- er collapsed and died from a fatal blood clot less than 24 hours after telling doctors he had chest pains, his devastated family said today.
Gareth Heath, from Halesowen, complained of discomfort when he attended Birmingham's City Hospital to have a cast removed from his arm following a fracture.
He was discharged and suffered a pulmonary embolism at the flat he shared with his girlfriend Sarah in Green Lane the next day.
Despite paramedics' efforts he was pronounced dead at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley.
Gareth's grieving mother Deborah, paying tribute to a "cheeky chappy with big ideas and a big heart" today, said she would be lodging an official complaint concerning her son's treatment with the trust which runs City Hospital.
"It is heartbreaking, there is no reason this should have happened," the 43-year-old, of Brier Mill Road, Halesowen, said. "If they had listened to him, he would have had a chance.
"Something has got to be done and we will be putting in an official complaint."
Mrs Heath said her son had been "so excited" about becoming a father with 22-year-old Sarah expecting in just a few weeks' time.
"During the week he died he was so excited about the baby," Mrs Heath, a shelf stacker at Asda, said. She added: "He was a cheeky chappy, a 'Del Boy' character who would have done anything for anyone."
Around 400 people packed into a funeral service at Our Lady and St Hubert's Catholic Church in Wolverhampton Road, Warley. "I didn't think Gareth knew that many people," Mrs Heath, said.
Gareth, a customer services adviser at Centrica, was previously a carer at Agnes House care home in Newbury Lane, Oldbury. He died on November 28.
