Tragic girl died after surgery by torchlight in understaffed hospital
POSING with a teddy bear on a record-breaking charity hike, Emma Welch was determined to defy her spinal problems.
But just four days after a trek up Snowdon, the 14-year- old died as she was operated on under torchlight – because there were not enough night staff to take her into theatre.
She might have survived if she had been treated in an operating theatre, an inquest heard yesterday. And now her grieving family have called for more NHS staff to be on duty around the clock to prevent further tragedies. The teenager needed emergency surgery after suffering internal bleeding following a routine operation to correct the curvature of her spine. But there were not enough operating theatre staff on duty that night at Bristol Children’s Hospital.
Her mother Lesley, 51, described her as an ‘extraordinary girl’ who had a ‘zest for life and making a difference... The impact of our loss is just too huge to begin to describe.’
Speaking after the hearing, she said anything that would improve night time provision would be a good thing. ‘If she had gone to theatre, there is a slim chance she would still be with us,’ she added.
‘There are nine theatres at the Bristol Children’s Hospital and at the time Emma died it was normal for only two of them to be used at night time. On the night she died, there were two operations already going on. We hope they will have the capacity to man three or four theatres depending on the scale of the incident.
‘Anything which will improve the situation and give what is needed at night is important.’ Emma had the apparently successful spine opera-
‘Manpower was the issue’
tion last June but the following night she suffered a heart attack triggered by the internal bleed and she required emergency surgery.
However, the inquest at Avon Coroner’s Court at Flax Bourton, near Bristol, heard that ‘manpower was the issue’.
Anthony Close, Emma’s grandfather, said: ‘Without there being an available theatre, emergency chest surgery on Emma had finally to be performed in her hospital bed with the help of torchlight.’
Hospital manager Jane Hetherington told the inquest she could not have opened another theatre because she would have needed a team of anaesthetists. She said: ‘We wouldn’t have known where all the equipment was.’ Spinal surgeon Ian Harding, who carried out the original procedure, said the team resorted to resuscitating 14-year-old on her bed when her heart stopped.
But he disputed the claim she would have survived if she was taken to theatre earlier and said things would only be different if the problem had been identified more quickly.
Senior coroner Maria Voisin concluded Emma died ‘from the unintended consequence of planned and necessary medical treatment’.
Emma climbed Snowdon to raise money for Brain Tumour Research. She set a world record for carrying 125 cuddly toys to the top of a mountain after trekking to the 3,500ft summit of the Welsh peak.