Great-grandmother died after heart valve was inserted upside down during surgery

A great-grandmother died from massive internal bleeding when surgeons inserted a heart valve upside down during a routine operation.

Sheila Hynes never came round from the operation – led by consultant surgeon Asif Raza Shah – after the mistake caused irreversible damage to her heart.

The 71-year-old underwent a second operation at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne to try to get her heart working but she died in intensive care a week later.

Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Freeman, has admitted that the error caused Mrs Hynes’ death. Mr Shah still works at the trust.

Her daughter, Jan Hopper, 55, from Haltwhistle, Northumberland, said the family have been left distraught.

She said: “My life has been destroyed by what happened to my mother.

“She was a very active woman and loved nothing more than going on holiday. The week before her operation we had been in Tenerife as her sister Carol had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“It was a bittersweet time and mum had wanted to get her own operation over with so she could care for her sister.

“My mother was the picture of health that week and I can remember saying to her, ‘mum, you look absolutely stunning’.

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“Nothing was more important to my mum than family and she loved spending time with all of us.

“She was the heart of our family.”

Mrs Hynes, a widow with seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, had undergone the surgery to try and improve her breathing, which was being hampered by inadequate blood flow.

Mrs Hopper added: “It took three days before we found out there had been an injury to her heart – that was dropped into conversation by one of the doctors.

“We asked what on earth that was all about, they’d never mentioned it before. He said it had been punctured.

“Then a doctor mentioned to my son about a valve being put in the wrong way. We were immediately suspicious as nobody had said this before.”

Mrs Hynes never regained consciousness and died on April 2. The hospital then admitted the error.

Mrs Hopper said: “We were told that putting the heart valve on the wrong way had caused her heart to balloon up and expand, and then when it contracted the wall of her heart was pierced on an instrument.

“We still haven’t come to terms with what happened. It’s been traumatic.”

The trust has admitted full breach of duty, and that the error which caused Mrs Hynes’ death was the insertion of the heart valve the wrong way.

A trust statement said: “Our staff always try to provide the best possible care to all of our patients. So we take the death of any of our patients very seriously.

“Sadly, when providing complex treatment there may be rare occasions when something unexpected happens, and in those circumstances we always carry out an in-depth investigation and we have done so in this case.”

An inquest into the death, which occurred in April 2015, has now been scheduled for later this year.

Top pic: PA