Repeated failure to act on scan results led to patient’s delayed surgery and death from brain tumour, says ombudsman

A woman died after multiple failings in a hospital trust’s monitoring and treatment of her operable brain tumour, an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has found. The delay by doctors at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in operating on May Ashford’s tumour increased the risk of a stroke at least twofold, the ombudsman concluded.Ashford, a patient at the Royal Preston Hospital, died aged 71 from a stroke after surgery for a meningioma in the left middle cranial fossa. Operating sooner would, on the balance of probabilities, have saved her life, said the ombudsman, Rob Behrens.The tumour was first identified in December 2010, and regular scans were carried out until late 2014, when the case was referred to the multidisciplinary team (MDT). Ashford had surgery in May 2015 at the Royal Preston Hospital but died four days later.The ombudsman, who was advised by two independent clinical experts, said…
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