Widower’s anger at 4-year wait for truth about hospital errors that killed his wife
A GRIEVING husband has hit out at hospital bosses after waiting more than four years to hear the truth about his wife’s death following a string of medical blunders.
Teacher Frances Cappuccini, 30, died after giving birth to her second son when doctors botched her Caesarean and anaesthetic.
Last night her husband Tom, 37, said: ‘It was inevitable that somebody was going to die at that hospital.’
An inquest this year finally revealed doctors had ignored procedures and made devastating errors before Mrs Cappuccini died at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in October 2012.
The coroner ruled an anaesthetist removed her breathing tube too early and it was not seen she was suffering from the blood condition sepsis.
Speaking for the first time about his family’s ordeal, Mr Cappuccini said Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust had held back information.
He said: ‘The trust made it very, very difficult to get any documentation of
any kind, from witness statements to the serious investigation report.
‘All I wanted to know was what the hell am I going to tell my children, what am I going to tell my family.’
The widower dismissed the trust’s admission that his wife’s death was ‘avoidable’, adding; ‘I think it’s the wrong word to use. It wasn’t avoidable – it was inevitable.
‘Someone was going to die. It’s just unfortunate it happened to us.’
Mr Cappuccini told Channel 4 News he believed his wife had died because doctors had not spotted she was suffering from sepsis. He said: ‘I think I’m 99.9 per cent certain it started with the sepsis and then every event after that where things should have been picked up and should have been dealt with, unfortunately mistakes were made all the way along.’ The Daily Mail launched its ‘End the Sepsis Scandal’ campaign to raise awareness about the ‘silent killer’ which hits an estimated 200,000 people a year. Mrs Cappuccini – affectionately called Mrs Coffee by her primary school pupils – had been ‘ anxious’ after the traumatic birth of her first son and expected a C-section. However, she was persuaded by midwives to try for a natural birth, before needing an emergency C-section following a 12hour labour. Surgeons left a chunk of pla- centa inside her which triggered a huge bleed as she started to breastfeed her new- born son Giacomo. As she was rushed to surgery, she told her husband: ‘If anything happens, look after the boys.’ But she did not wake up from the general anaesthetic and suffered a cardiac arrest after an anaesthetist removed her breathing tube too early. Mr Cappuccini said: ‘I placed a lot of blame on myself – I still do – for not being more forceful with the midwives and insist- ing more that we had the Csection. So to then imagine her waking up and being unable to breathe by herself and being conscious, I can’t even put into words how that made me feel.
‘I loved her to bits. I would do anything to change what has happened, absolutely anything.’
He said he did not sleep for weeks but had to keep going to ‘get justice’ for his wife.
Mr Cappuccini said: ‘I don’t understand how out of all the doctors and all of the nurses there, how no one was able to pick up on the sepsis. To me, that’s basic stuff.’ He was still receiving messages of congratulations about the arrival of their son after his wife died.
The inquest came a year after a criminal trial collapsed and gross negligence manslaughter charges were dropped against the NHS trust and two doctors. Anaesthetist Dr Nadeem Azeez should have been under supervision after nearly killing another mother months before. He is thought to be living in his native Pakistan after fleeing the UK before he was charged.
The trust yesterday said: ‘We have acknowledged Frances’ death was avoidable and have made significant changes as a direct result of the aspects of her care which did not meet standards we would expect.’
A spokesman said the time taken to determine what happened was outside their control due to legal proceedings.
‘Mistakes were made all the way’