Man with broken leg died from hospital’s negligence after op
AMAN died due to negligent care after an operation on a broken leg at Southport District General Hospital, an inquest has ruled.
Stuart Brunst, from Aughton, Lancashire, died on October 2, 2015, three weeks after undergoing surgery at Southport Hospital for a broken femur.
Following the operation it was found that screws were inserted incorrectly in his leg and became dislodged.
Mr Brunst, 67, died after developing a fat embolism.
During the inquest, Senior Coroner Christopher Sumner, concluded that the “actions, and, at times, inactivity, of the Southport District General Hospital”, which was responsible for Stuart’s care, “did amount to neglect as defined, and contributed to the death of Mr Brunst”.
Mr Brunst’s only daughter, Anita, said: “Dad’s death has had a huge impact on us and we are still struggling to come to terms with the huge hole he has left in our lives. For him to go into hospital with just a simple broken leg and to die like this, is extremely hard to deal with.
“My dad’s death, and what happened afterwards, left us with a lot of unanswered questions.”
“Following his death we had very little contact, support, words of sympathy or apology from the trust, despite the findings of their investigation being known to them.”
As part of the investigations, it has now been discovered that the Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust did not comply with its obligations to tell the family about an internal investigation into the death for 10 months.
The family have now been made aware that an internal investigation into Mr Brunst’s death identified key failings in the care he received – many months before they were advised that the investigation had even taken place, depriving them of the opportunity to take part in the investigation or voice their concerns to the trust.
The inquest heard that issue with the dislodged screw was not identified when x-rays were conducted in the operating theatre, and that there were delays in further x-rays following the operation when Mr Brunst was complaining of pain.
Since the inquest, the trust has admitted liability for the poor care that led to his death.
Mr Brunst was the assistant chief environmental officer for Sefton MBC until he retired in 1999
Sarah Sharples, a medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, representing Anita, said: “Stuart’s sudden and tragic death has obviously had a significant impact on his family and they are struggling to come to terms with the series of events that caused his death, which stem from him undergoing routine surgery for a broken leg.
Ian McInnes, interim chief executive at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We wish to offer our sincere condolences to Mr Brunst’s family for the loss of their much loved family member. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to them.
“The trust accepts there were failures in the care provided to Mr Brunst and that with appropriate care it is likely his death might have been avoided. We apologise unreservedly to Mr Brunst’s family for this.
“Following Mr Brunst’s death, the trust launched an investigation to thoroughly examine the care he received at the trust, and to establish the facts to determine if there had been any avoidable harm.
“This was a complicated investigation and we would like to apologise to the family for the time it took for the relevant facts to be established and for contact to be made with the family; together with the associated distress this may have caused.
“As a result of the investigation we identified lessons to be learnt in light of Mr Brunst’s very sad death and we have made a number of changes to significantly strengthen and improve our procedures.”