Healthy Staffordshire mother died after routine surgery

A healthy mother-of-two from Staffordshire died following a routine operation to remove her gall bladder after doctors tore an artery during surgery, an inquest heard.

Patricia Franks, aged 67, from Chasetown, Burntwood, regularly went to keep-fit classes, swam twice a week, and had recently returned from a cruise with her husband John.

But what was expected to be an hour-long keyhole procedure in February last year turned into open surgery lasting three hours after complications developed.

The retired nursery school cook, was diagnosed with possible gall bladder problems at the Salters Meadow Centre in Burntwood. The grandmother was referred to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield where doctors said the organ would have to be removed.

During surgery, part of the blood supply to her liver was cut off. She came round after the operation but died two days later on February 9 at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been transferred.

There doctors found a tear in one of her arteries, a blood clot in a vein and two more arteries which appeared to have been tied off, stemming the blood supply to her liver.

Surgeon Gopi Tripuraneni told the Birmingham inquest how he called for the assistance of senior registrar Mark Peacock after scar tissue from previous surgery made access to the gall bladder difficult. Around 40 minutes later, Mrs Franks began haemorrhaging and a consultant surgeon was alerted.

Harmeet Khaira traced the source of the bleeding to a tear in a vein which he repaired. Mr Tripuraneni then completed the operation, the inquest heard.

The next day, a CT scan indicated liver damage. Mr Franks, 69, said he was "beside himself with grief" when he was told his wife of 48 years was dying.

The inquest continues.