Grandfather whose internal bleeding was wrongly diagnosed 'could have been saved' if medics listened to family, inquest told

Mark Ian Haywood suffered a "massive" gastrointestinal bleed as a result of complications several years after a pancreas transplant.

Mr Haywood had been admitted to Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford multiple times in quick succession after passing blood, but his bleeding was wrongly diagnosed by a doctor as being the result of the far less serious condition of haemorrhoids.

An inquest into his death at Shropshire Coroner’s Court at the Guildhall, Shrewsbury, was told that medics “did not listen” to the pleas of his family to investigate his condition further and order a CT angiogram (CTAG) to try and reveal the true source of the bleeding early on.

His tearful stepdaughters told how his bathroom would be left “a bloodbath”, and how one of their last videos of their stepdad shows him fearfully saying: “I’m dying.”

Mr Haywood had been admitted to PRH on several occasions in October and November of 2022 after passing blood.

Eventually, a CTAG was finally carried out and did reveal the source of bleed - a pancreatic fistula which came several years after he had pancreas and kidney transplants. 

However, the diagnosis came too late to save Mr Haywood, who lived in Albrighton, Shropshire but was originally from North Devon. He died at PRH on November 25, 2022.

His family hit out at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust (SaTH) over “missed opportunities” to save him.

One of his stepdaughters said “we just weren’t listened to,” adding that people who suffer haemorrhoids “don’t leave a bloodbath”.

“They just kept sending him back home again,” she said. “There were multiple missed opportunities but not once was there anyone offered to us to give a second opinion.”