Husband blames hospital after death of Pulham Market woman following varicose vein surgery

Posted 28/05/2014

The husband of a Pulham Market woman who died following surgery on her varicose veins is demanding details of his wife’s treatment and the circumstances that led up to her death.

Nicola Tweedy, 54, attended the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital for day surgery on 27 March this year. She underwent varicose vein surgery and was discharged that evening. Two days later, she was looking as though she was asleep in a chair. When she could not be woken, an ambulance was called and administered CPR. Both the East of England Ambulance Service and East Anglian Air Ambulance attended very quickly and have been thanked in correspondence by Mr Tweedy for their assistance that day. In spite of the efforts of the paramedics, she died. The coroner’s office later confirmed that Mrs Tweedy had suffered a pulmonary embolism which was directly linked to her recent surgery.

Mrs Tweedy’s husband, Chris, informed the hospital of his wife’s death on Monday 31 March but it took a further four days to call him back. The hospital has apologized and explained that this was due to the Consultant responsible for her care being away from the office. The hospital also claims that a pulmonary embolism is a possible repercussion of this kind of surgery, however they have also confirmed that another death has occurred recently from the same surgery which has heightened the families’ concerns over patient safety. Mr Tweedy is also querying the hospitals protocols and procedures, from the assessment beforehand through the operation to his wife’s discharge.

He has engaged medical negligence lawyer Sharon Allison of Ashtons Legal to represent him at the inquest and in any subsequent legal proceedings against the hospital. Sharon says:

“The family are understandably bereft at their loss and want to understand more of the circumstances surrounding Nicola’s treatment and care and whether all that could have been done was done to minimise her individual risk of suffering from a Pulmonary Embolism following her surgery. We will be assisting the Coroner at the forthcoming Inquest in determining the facts about this very tragic case.”