An anaesthetist who treated a Lancashire mum-of-two who bled to death following a routine operation told an inquest he had never been seen such severe bleeding.
Dr Ian Selby, consultant anaesthetist at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, gave evidence at an inquest at Lancaster Shire Hall into the death of Angela Duxbury.
Miss Duxbury, 31, of Fishwick Parade, Preston, died at Royal Preston
Hospital after being admitted on December 6 2007 for a keyhole procedure after being diagnosed with gallstones.
Dr Selby told the inquest he anaesthetised Miss Duxbury for the procedure and when, during the start of the operation, her pulse went up and her blood pressure dropped, he responded by giving her fluids.
He then continued giving her more fluids during the procedure. Dr Selby said: "My assessment was that she had come to theatre dehydrated, short of fluid."
Lancashire Coroner Dr James Adeley questioned Dr Selby on the amount of fluid he administered to Miss Duxbury, saying the surgeon and independent experts had said around one to two litres was the normal amount to be given.
Dr Selby replied: "I give more fluid than other anaesthetists. I give fairly high doses of an IV agent at the beginning and I need fluid to maintain the blood pressure. I did have to give more fluid than normal."
Dr Selby told the court that as there was no obvious sign of blood loss, he dealt with the issues that were obvious – the dehydration and loss of blood pressure.
He said: "Looking back, I obviously realise there was more going on and I wish I had made more of the amount of fluid I gave and discussed it with the surgeons."
The inquest had heard from Mr Anselm Egun, general and vascular surgeon, who said he was concerned after Miss Duxbury's operation when he found her looking pale and restless and wanted haemoglobin tests to check if she had blood loss, but that Dr Selby declined.
Dr Selby said: "I had given Angela a lot of fluid, which would have diluted the haemoglobin in the blood."
The inquest heard how Miss Duxbury went back on the operating table after her pulse could not be found.
Dr Selby said: "The surgeons looked inside Angela's tummy and initially, could find nothing wrong.
"But I asked Mr Egun to continue looking because it was obvious there was a major leak somewhere.
"In my 20 years I have never seen bleeding like that. The only way Angela was going to come out of this was to stop the bleeding."
(Proceeding)>> Vote in our latest web poll News Review map: Relive the top headlines of the year so far