Fatal leak undetected after bowel operation.

Byline: DION JONES

A WOMAN died when a leak in her bowel went undetected following an operation to remove a tumour.

Lab worker Linda Maud Peat, 60, of Maes Merig, Caernarfon, appeared to be recovering well from the operation at Ysbyty Gwynedd, surgeon Dr Neil Abdulah told an inquest in Caernarfon yesterday.

But her condition deteriorated and her ample size could have hidden the severe symptoms of the bowel leakage.

He said on April 2, the day of her death, Mrs Peat said she was feeling faint and "a bit under the weather", but her symptoms were not severe enough to give him any cause for concern.

She later collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest.

Neighbour Steven Gallagher, a nurse at the hospital's Accident and Emergency unit, said: "We were very concerned about the abdominal pain that she was having which was ignored and disregarded.

"She was in pain and been vomiting for three days and actually showed the vomit to the nurses and it was ignored.

"She (Mrs Peat) was of a generation which held doctors and surgeons in high regard and didn't want to make a fuss."

Recording a narrative verdict, deputy coroner Nicola Jones said the leak was a rare but "professionally accepted" risk of the operation.

"I am grateful that Dr Abdulah has been so open, so frank and not defensive because we do get a lot of that," she said.

"If it is any assurance, it is that the doctor has said he will treat larger ladies in a different way from now on."