Wife says husband's death at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital was not in vain
The Shropshire family of a 'nil by mouth' patient who died after being given food and drink at a county hospital have said they no longer feel his death was in vain.
Pensioner Dennis Edwards, 73, of Lyth Hill Road in Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, died following a routine operation to remove gallstones at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in August 2010.
His family have won an undisclosed payout from Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. Mr Edward's throat was torn during surgery, which involved a camera being inserted through his mouth.
He was transferred to Telford's Princess Royal Hospital where he was given food and drink by medical staff despite notes saying he should not be fed.
The food and drink leaked into his chest causing widespread damage and infection.
He was later rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, but despite emergency surgery, his condition deteriorated further and he died six weeks later.
Bosses at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust said lessons had been learned. Chief executive Peter Herring, said: "Since Mr Edwards' death in 2010 many improvements have been made to improve the quality and safety of the services we provide, such as those regarding patients undergoing endoscopic procedures. Once again I would like to apologise on behalf of the trust and offer our deepest sympathies to the family."
Mr Edward's widow, Jean, 68, said they hoped the changes would prevent the same mistakes happening again.
She said: "My family and I feel that if more care was taken and information passed more easily from one hospital to another, Dennis' condition would have been diagnosed earlier, giving him a much better chance of survival.
"For a long time we have been very angry about the fact Dennis was taken from us but we do now finally have some peace of mind that his death wasn't in vain due to the Trust implementing new policies to stop the same mistakes being made again."
