Heavily pregnant mother, 32, and her baby died after trainee surgeons removed her OVARY instead of her appendix



Maria De Jesus was admitted for surgery at Queen’s Hospital in Romford

Because she was heavily pregnant, surgeons had to 'feel' for the appendix

She died 19 days after first botched operation from multiple organ failure

'A lost window of opportunity could have saved her,' said coroner

Mrs De Jesus' family said she was 'unlawfully killed by a 'litany of errors'



A Mother-to-be died after trainee surgeons took out an ovary instead of her appendix in a weekend operation.

Maria De Jesus was five months pregnant when she was admitted to hospital with serious abdominal pain.

Doctors correctly diagnosed appendicitis only to remove the wrong organ on the operating table.

They discharged their 32-year-old patient from hospital but – two weeks after the initial operation – readmitted her because she was still in great pain.

Maria De Jesus, 32, pregnant with the the baby she miscarried days before she died of multiple organ failure. She was suffering from appendicitis but unsupervised trainee surgeons removed one of her ovaries by mistake

By now, a pathology report revealing the failure to remove her dangerously inflamed appendix had been available for a week. Yet, incredibly, doctors had not read it.

They only looked at the report, and realised their mistake, two days later – when Mrs De Jesus had a miscarriage.

By now she was suffering sepsis, a severe blood infection caused by the untreated appendicitis.

She had an emergency operation to remove septic fluid but died 48 hours later on the operating table when surgeons finally removed her appendix. She had suffered major organ failure.

Yesterday her husband Adelino said a ‘litany of errors’ had been made during his wife’s treatment and he planned to take legal action against Queen’s Hospital in Romford, East London.

‘My wife’s death could have been prevented, I am sure of it,’ said the 53-year-old. ‘By the time they realised how serious the situation was – and they promised us all the best consultants – it was too late.

‘This is neglect, this is an unlawful killing. If my wife had been given treatment by fully qualified staff and people were informed of the mistake earlier she could still be alive.

‘She went to hospital with stomach pains and we were told she needed to have her appendix out.

‘She had the operation, and left hospital eight days later, but the pain continued. We wouldn’t have ever imagined what they had done.’

Mrs De Jesus' condition failed to improve after the mistake was noticed and she died on the operating table at Queens Hospital, Romford (pictured) after medics finally removed her appendix - 19 days after the wrong procedure. She had developed severe sepsis as a result of the appendicitis

At an inquest last week, coroner Chinyere Inyama spoke of a ‘lost window of opportunity’ that could have saved Mrs De Jesus’s life.

The hearing in Walthamstow, North-East London, was told the operation was carried out on Sunday, October 23, 2011, by two trainee surgeons without the supervision of a consultant.

Eight days later tests showed they had bungled but it was not until November 9 – and when Mrs De Jesus had been back in their care for two more days – that doctors read the report and realised the appendix had not been dealt with.

Dr Sunita Sharma told the hearing she examined the pathology results because she was ‘puzzled’ that Mrs De Jesus was still in pain.

‘It didn’t make sense that a healthy young woman with appendicitis wasn’t recovering after the appendix had been removed,’ she said.

‘I looked at the results and it showed that her ovary had been removed and not her appendix. I could not believe it, I was shocked.’ Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospital Trust has admitted liability for Mrs De Jesus’s death on November 11, 2011.

Chief executive Averil Dongworth said: ‘The trust fully accepts the inquest verdict. I would once again like to apologise unreservedly to Mrs De Jesus’s family for their loss.

‘We have admitted liability in this case. The staff involved in Mrs De Jesus’s care have been deeply affected by her death.

‘An extensive trust-wide action plan was drawn up following Mrs De Jesus’s death in 2011 to ensure that such a tragic incident will not happen again.

‘We have kept Mrs De Jesus’s family fully informed about the investigation into her death and the subsequent wide-ranging work which has taken place to improve systems and patient safety.’

Liability: Mrs de Jesus's husband said 'My wife could still be alive'

The General Medical Council is investigating eight hospital staff, including senior surgical consultant Dr Babatunde Coker over the case.

Mrs De Jesus, a teaching assistant from Dagenham, East London, would have been 34 this month.

Her daughter Catarina, ten, said: ‘We have put the balloons up because it was mum’s birthday and it’s good to celebrate it.’ Her son Pedro, 16, said: ‘It feels like such a big injustice.’

The coroner recorded a narrative verdict.

Shocking findings published last month revealed that patients who have planned operations at the weekend rather than a Monday are 82 per cent more likely to die.

Researchers from Imperial College London looked at four million elective operations in NHS hospitals in England between 2008 and 2011 with at least one night spent in hospital.

Elective surgery normally involves procedures such as heart bypass, hip and knee replacements, gastric operations and hysterectomies. Altogether 27,500 patients died within 30 days of surgery, with the risk lowest for those having it on Monday and rising on each subsequent day of the week.

The extra risk on Tuesday was minimal, but went up to 15 per cent on Wednesday, 21 per cent for Thursday patients and 44 per cent on Friday – all compared with Monday. Almost one in 20 operations was performed at a weekend, when the increased risk reached 82 per cent, said the study published online at bmj.com.