Hospital surgeon accepts causing fatal colon tear during an operation on a Dudley patient, inquest hears
A surgeon has accepted causing a fatal colon tear when he was undertaking surgery on a patient from Dudley during an inquest hearing
A surgeon has accepted causing a fatal colon tear when he was undertaking diagnostic surgery on a gastric bypass patient.
Yvonne Tolley died at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital the day before her 64th birthday on February 4 last year.
Family described how Mrs Tolley was “curled in the foetal position, clutching her abdomen,” and spent her final days “suffering” before her death.
They feel she was “not treated with the urgency or dignity she deserved”.
An inquest into Mrs Tolley’s death, held at Shropshire Coroner’s Court, Guildhall, Shrewsbury, was told that she had suffered a number of health issues, and had gastric bypass surgery in May 2024.
However, following that surgery she suffered persistent symptoms of sickness and pain.
It was agreed that she would have exploratory surgery on January 30 last year to try and get to the root of her problems.
During the surgery, Mr Manel Riera, a consultant laparoscopic upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon, discovered a number of adhesions in Mrs Tolley’s stomach.
Adhesions are fibrous bands of scar tissue that cause internal organs and tissues to stick together.
When he was dividing the adhesions, a full thickness tear of Mrs Tolley’s bladder was caused.
Mr Riera repaired it there and then, but during that surgery, a sigmoid perforation was also caused - otherwise known as a tear to the colon.
