Inquest set to open into death of man whose aneurysm went untreated at Manchester hospital

Inquest date: Tuesday 16th May
Time: 10am
Location: Manchester Coroner’s Court, Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester
M2 5BR
Duration: Two days

The inquest into the death of a 67-year-old man from Stretford in Manchester will open next week and is expected to examine whether opportunities to monitor and treat an aortic aneurysm that he had for at least eight years were missed by Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Peter Young was a retired courier with two grown up children and seven grandchildren. In 2006, he underwent an aortogram and angiogram at Manchester Royal Infirmary which revealed he had an aneurysm. No follow up action was taken to monitor it.

In 2012, he had a heart attack and subsequently underwent coronary bypass surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary. During the pre-operative assessments a large aneurysm was noted once again, but this was not acted upon by the operating surgeon or their team and was not communicated to his GP or vascular surgeon.

Peter recovered well from his heart surgery although he complained of stomach pains from time to time.

On 29 April 2014, Peter was taken by ambulance to the hospital’s accident & emergency department complaining of severe back and flank pain which he had been suffering from for three days. The hospital’s triage team recommended he be seen within the hour but it was three hours until he was seen by a doctor who diagnosed kidney stones and ordered a CT scan.

The CT scan was not undertaken until the next day as the machine was broken and was waiting a replacement. It showed that Peter had a 9cm ruptured aneurysm. He was taken to theatre for emergency surgery but died soon afterwards.

Emma Wray, a medical negligence partner at London law firm Hodge Jones & Allen is acting for Samantha James, Peter’s daughter. She says: “The death of her father has had a profound impact on my client and her family. It appears that medical staff knew he had an aneurysm for many years and that a number of opportunities to monitor its growth and to operate on an elective basis were missed. We hope that the inquest will provide answers about whether earlier intervention by medical staff would have prevented his death.”