Woman bled to death after hip replacement operation

A 79-year-old woman bled to death following a hip operation after being rushed to a hospital which lacked a service to save her, a coroner has said.

Christine Booker from Wareham died on 24 February 2023, the day after her hip replacement.

Coroner Brendan Allen said she was initially transferred to Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester, which had no out-of-hours interventional radiology (an imaging procedure), before being sent to Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

In a Prevention of Future Deaths report, he said patients in west Dorset faced a "potentially considerable and significant delay in the provision of urgent and life-saving treatment".

Writing to Dorset County Hospital, external, the coroner said the lack of an out-of-hours service in Dorchester exposed patients to an "increased risk of death".

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Source: BBC News, 10 June 2024