Concorde pilot dies from blood clot after 2-hour hospital wait
A FORMER Concorde pilot died from a blood clot after waiting more than two hours to see a doctor, an inquest heard.
Captain James Bedforth, 51, collapsed at home after flying a British Airways plane back to Britain from Shanghai.
But on arrival at hospital, he waited twoand-a-half hours to be assessed – despite experts telling the hearing he should have been seen within an hour.
Captain Bedforth, who was first officer on Concorde’s final flights in 2003, had visited the same hospital two months earlier with a pain in his leg. But he was not given a full scan which ‘might have provided valuable treatment’, Coroner Chris Dorries said.
Doctors examined him but failed to diagnose deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in his left leg, and he was discharged.
The coroner criticised Barnsley District Hospital for not giving Captain Bedforth information after his first visit, outlining that symptoms such as shortness of breath required immediate medical attention.
The pilot suffered shortness of breath in Shanghai the day before he returned home to Wortley, near Barnsley, where he collapsed on June 29 last year. The inquest heard medics were aware that his frequent flying raised the odds of DVT. Anaesthetist Dr Ye Myint, who has written guidelines on the condition, told the Sheffield hearing: ‘My personal opinion is that the [treatment] delay may have changed the outcome.’
Dr Alan Fletcher, a specialist in emergency medicine, said it was essential that patients discharged after negative tests for DVT were given advice about symptoms they should not ignore. Mr Dorries said the hospital did have an information sheet but that he was ‘less than convinced’ the pilot received it – as he would have taken his shortness of breath far more seriously.
Captain Bedforth did not mention the symptom to anyone, including his wife Cathy, until he collapsed. After seeing a doctor he waited a further half hour for blood-thinning drugs, but died in hospital a day later.
The inquest heard that a blood vessel in his brain had become swollen because of a blockage caused by debris from a clot. It was unclear whether this was from the DVT in his left calf or from a secondary thrombosis caused by that condition.
Thrombosis expert Dr Rhona Maclean said she did not believe Captain Bedforth would have survived even if he had been seen at hospital immediately. Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Dorries said there was not enough evidence to say treatment delays were responsible for Captain Bedforth’s death.
He added that he planned to write to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt about potential improvements in DVT diagnosis.