6 June 2025

I was concerned to hear a BBC report concerning the treatment of eleven patients at the Castle Hill Hospital, near Hull. They were all being treated for heart complaints and all died unexpectedly. The mortality rate in the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implant (TAVI) unit was three times higher than the national average.

In 2020, Dorothea Readhead went in for an operation to replace a damaged valve in her heart. The eighty-seven year old was suffering from breathlessness. She was described as ‘an active member of her local church and a keen gardener’. 

With a blockage in her right leg, the left leg was to be used for the procedure. The TAVI team made a mistake and used the right leg. When they got into difficulties, they paused to consider their options but decided to continue without acknowledging that this was elective rather than emergency surgery.

They attempted to penetrate the blockage three times. They tore a major artery. Dorothy Readhead lost six litres of blood. She was on the operating table for six hours instead of two and was awake throughout this ordeal. She died a week later.

The death certificate did not acknowledge the cause of death. The family was not informed about what had actually happened until the BBC got in touch with them for comment some five years later. The medical team disregarded the benefit for the patient in favour of what was described as a ‘have a go’ mentality.

The truth was deliberately concealed. The patient’s dignity was not respected.  The family’s right to know what had happened was disregarded. All this in an attempt to safeguard the reputation of those involved. At the critical moment, would it have been too humiliating for the surgeon to acknowledge his mistake and save a life?

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