Family of man from Camborne who died after Derriford Hospital surgery seek answers

The family of a 42-year-old man who died days after complex surgery are seeking more answers despite an inquest into his death.

Stephen Crilly, from Camborne, died on 7 June, 2019, four days after he underwent surgery at Derriford Hospital to remove a grade-three soft tissue Sarcoma tumour from his right thigh.

At an inquest hearing on Monday 12 July this year, Senior Coroner for Plymouth, Torbay and South Devon Ian Arrow heard statements from three doctors at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which runs Derriford Hospital.

The inquest heard the "complex" surgery lasted almost 12 hours and caused Mr Crilly to lose a lot of blood. The blood loss led to a cardiac arrest and a hypoxic brain injury caused by low oxygen levels, from which Mr Crilly died.

Mr Crilly and his wife Francesca met at school when they were just five years old. They spent time together in every class until they left school at the age of 16.

"Then we went and did our own thing, Steve went travelling in Australia. Then later on, he came back from travelling, it just sort of happened, we got back together," she said.

Both Francesca and the couple's daughter Megan said they felt like the inquest did little to answer any of their questions - in particular if changes had been made at Derriford Hospital following his death.

Megan said: "We sat there and relived what happened, a week of hell, to still not know why my dad died because they don't know.

"When they said during the inquest that it was going to be based on probability, I thought 'no I'm sorry but you don't lose a 42-year-old man on an operating table and not be able to tell their family why he had complete organ failure'."

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust offered sincere condolences to the family. The trust said several changes have been put in place at Derriford Hospital since he died.

A spokesperson for the trust said: “Mr Crilly’s operation was extremely complex and patient safety is always our absolute priority.

"We have put in place several changes to ensure patient care in our operating theatres and we continue to work for improving patient outcomes."

Speaking following the inquest hearing, Megan Crilly said: "My dad did Jiu Jitsu three times a week, he was fit as a fiddle. I felt like in the inquest they were trying to say my dad was overweight, and he wasn't - he may have had a BMI, but he was very fit."

Dr Colin Bigham was in charge of a root cause analysis following Mr Crilly's death - a type of investigation into serious incidents.

During the inquest he said he was not 100% sure if changes suggested following Mr Crilly's death were still being implemented and followed up at the hospital.

Dr Bigham said this because he had been focusing on Covid-19 related matters in the intensive care unit at Derriford, meaning he had taken his "foot off the ball".

Addressing this, Megan said: "If they're the changes that need to be made, you should be absolutely certain coming into this inquest that that is still in place.

"All we want is to make sure that there is as little as possible going on that could possibly make this happen to another family.

"To hear them say that they can't confirm for us that the points they made are still in place is like, what an absolute waste of time."