Anguish as kidney stones lad dies after six ops in 72 hours
A GRIEVING mother has told of her family’s devastation after a “perfectly healthy” 10-year-old boy died during a kidney stones operation.
The family of Luke Glendenning were expecting a simple procedure but “more and more things went wrong”.
That led to six operations in 72 hours before his parents were asked to let doctors switch off his life support at Leeds Children’s Hospital.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has launched an investigation.
Luke’s mother Sue Hirst, 34, herself an NHS worker, said: “Apart from the kidney stones, Luke was perfectly healthy. We never thought for a second when we signed the consent form that there was a risk he might die.”
Luke, who dreamed of becoming an RAF pilot, was admitted for surgery after a chance discovery last June.
Ms Hirst said: “The operation took double the time that was expected and when the surgeon came down, he said they had noticed that Luke had an abnormal kidney and they’d found it difficult to remove the stones.”
That evening, fluid on Luke’s chest and abdomen meant he could not maintain his blood pressure and he was rushed back to theatre to remove his left kidney.
But he failed to stabilise and two further operations followed.
Ms Hirst said: “He started turning yellow as the fluid from his first operation had damaged his liver and right kidney, so he ended up on dialysis.
“That made him bloated and he wasn’t getting blood to his limbs and the doctors couldn’t tell us if he was getting blood to his brain.
“Everything seemed to just was one thing after another.”
A fifth operation led to Luke’s heart stopping and a sixth operation began.
But he did not recover and hours later Ms Hirst and Luke’s father Richard Glendenning, 38, allowed life support to be withdrawn.
The couple, of Leeds, have launched a complaint against the trust.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals chief medical officer Dr Yvette Oade offered “sincere condolences” to Luke’s family but declined to comment further while the investigation continues. fail, it