Barrister died after he was left in hospital bed under ‘freezing air vent’
ONE of Britain’s most flamboyant barristers died following heart surgery in a hospital where his bed lay under a ‘freezing air vent’.
Sir George Desmond de Silva, known as Sir Desmond, died in the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, southwest London, on June 2 aged 78.
The QC’s family has raised concerns about lack of staffing, infection levels on the ward and an air vent which blew cold air on him for ‘ an extended period’, a pre-inquest review heard yesterday.
West London Coroner’s Court heard the ‘chain of events’ leading to his death may have started with the heart surgery he had at the hospital in November last year.
Sir Desmond earned the nickname ‘ the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Bar’ for his habit of taking on cases defending ‘impossible’ clients. He was one of the first barristers to earn £1million a year and worked as chief war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations in Sierra Leone.
One of his best-known achievements was helping to secure the arrest of Liberian warlord Charles Taylor for war crimes.
Sir Desmond, who was born in Sri Lanka, even survived an assassination attempt in Sierra Leone and in 1987 married Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, who was 20 years his junior. His celebrity clients in the UK included former England football captain John Terry, Dame Shirley Bassey and I’m A Celeb winner Harry Redknapp.
On November 27 last year, Sir Desmond was admitted to hospital for elective heart surgery, ‘which sadly was complicated’, Coroner Fiona Wilcox said.
She added: ‘I have reason to suspect that before this procedure started the whole chain of events, this death would not have occurred.’
Sir Desmond suffered a damaged aortic valve and had a temporary pacemaker removed at the hospital in December last year before suffering a stroke, the inquest heard.
The family’s solicitor, David Story, told the coroner Sir Desmond’s relatives had several ‘areas of concern’ around his hospital care.
These included staffing levels, the number of patients and staff with ‘infections or flutype symptoms’, and the measures put in place to prevent the spread of these infections.
Mr Story said the family had also raised concerns about the freezing air vent and faulty dialysis machines possibly delaying treatment.
The coroner scheduled a three-day inquest to begin on April 30 next year. She said the main matters would be ‘the complications that occurred rather than the surgery itself’.