Inquest into death of Cornwall woman following routine knee surgery to re-open

A one-day inquest into the death of a 79-year old Cornwall woman, at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, following routine knee surgery, will re-open on Friday 19 February. The original inquest was opened and adjourned on 5 May 2015, and again on 22 September 2015, to allow the coroner, Dr Carlyon, to gather further evidence.

Mrs Audrey Prew, who lived with her husband in Camborne, Cornwall, died on 12 June 2014 at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, ten days after a routine operation on her knee.

Dawn Treloar, medical negligence lawyer at Hodge Jones & Allen is representing Mrs Prew’s husband, Melvyn, at the inquest. She says there are many questions surrounding Mrs Prew’s pre and post-surgery care that need to be answered: “We hope that the coroner will examine a number of concerns over Mrs Prew’s care, including an assessment of her fitness for surgery, communication between Mrs Prew’s GP and the hospital, the reason for her poor condition after the surgery and the management of this by the orthopaedic team.”

The inquest will hear evidence from a number of witnesses, including Mr Robin Kincaid, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon who performed knee surgery on Mrs Prew, and Dr Jonathan Myers, Consultant in General and Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Cornwall Hospital.

Mrs Prew’s husband, Melvyn Prew will not be attending the inquest but issued the following statement via his solicitor: “I remain completely devastated and shocked at losing my wonderful wife, Audrey. I cannot comprehend how she went in for routine surgery and never came home from hospital. It was completely unexpected. Those few days she was in hospital are a blur to me and I could see her slipping away and that no one seemed to be doing anything to help her. I believe she went before her time. My life will never be the same without her and I hope that my issues will be fully explored and lessons learnt so that no other family has to go through what me and my family have had to.”

The inquest is expected to last one day.

Venue: County Hall, Treyew Road, Truro TR1 3AY
Date: 19 February 2016, 10am

All press enquiries to:

Kerry Jack, Black Letter Communications on 020 3567 1208 or 07525 756 599, email: kerry.jack@blackletterpr.co.uk

Notes to editors:

Hodge Jones and Allen employs over 220 staff, based in Euston NW1. The firm’s team of specialists deal with Personal Injury, Medical Negligence, Industrial Disease, Civil Liberties, Criminal Defence, Court of Protection, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Family Law, Military Claims, Serious Fraud, Social Housing, Wills & Probate and Property Disputes.

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