Mum died 'in agony' after medical procedure

The inquest is into the deaths of four patients and is being held at the Council House in Nottingham

A woman died "in agony" after a medical procedure which involved passing a tube down her throat and into her digestive system, an inquest has heard.

In a statement, Carol Cole's husband described seeing his wife crying with pain as she waited almost five hours for an ambulance.

The inquest is examining whether the procedure contributed to her death.

It has heard that she died from pancreatitis - an inflamed pancreas - which is a known risk of the procedure.

In his statement, Trevor Cole said his wife started experiencing severe abdominal pain at home, after she left hospital.

"She said she was in agony," he said. "She was crying with the pain."

Mrs Cole, who was 53 when she died, had the procedure - known in full as an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) - to treat gallstones.

She died at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham on 11 September 2020, the day after she had the endoscopy.

Carol Cole, who died aged 53, was married and had two sons

She is among four patients to have died after having an endoscopy performed by the same doctor, and the inquest is being held into all of their deaths.

The other patients were William Doleman, Anita Burkey and Peter Sellars, and they were all treated by gastroenterologist Muthuram Rajaram.

Glen Irving, a consultant surgeon who supervised Mrs Cole's endoscopy, said he believed it caused her pancreatitis and was therefore a factor in her death.

"What happens is it [pancreatitis] triggers an inflammatory response to the whole body," he said.

"Although it's to a localised area, it triggers a response in the whole body, and that can happen quite quickly."

He said this can eventually lead to organ failure and death.

In his evidence, Mr Irving said Mr Rajaram had accidentally gone into the pancreatic duct twice during the endoscopy.

This is not meant to happen, but he said it can happen to anyone carrying out the procedure.

Pancreatitis is where the pancreas becomes inflamed, and it can lead to organ failure and death

Mrs Cole's proposed cause of death pending the conclusion of the inquest is acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis - because she had a severe type of pancreatitis - and bowel infarction.

Bowel infarction is damage to the bowel caused by insufficient blood flow, which in Mrs Cole's case is thought to have been caused by a blood clot.

Mr Cole's statement also described how they had met in a nightclub and had two sons together.

"It makes me very sad that our sons will not have their mum there to see them growing up into men," he said.

"Carol was taken from us far too soon and she will be missed by everyone."

The inquest continues.

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