The family of a woman who died eight weeks after an operation for a non-existent cancer have questioned the standards of one of the country’s top teaching hospitals.

Christine Johnson died at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, in April last year following surgery for suspected pancreatic cancer.

The 58-year-old unemployed cleaner, of Baildon, had undergone the surgery less than six months after seeing her GP about a persistent cough.

But after it was discovered the suspected tumour was a cyst, Mrs Johnson was “desperately unfortunate” to develop a series of complications which lead to the amputation of part of her right leg and ultimately her death.

At an inquest in Leeds yesterday, Mrs Johnson’s sister, Jennifer Banks, said her family was concerned that care at the hospital fell below standard.

She said her family felt Mrs Johnson was not treated properly during almost two months in hospital and also had grave concerns about why she was allowed home.

In less than a fortnight after Mrs Johnson went home, her condition deteriorated and she was rushed back to the hospital with a suspected wound infection.

But her condition got worse and, despite the draining of fluid from her chest, her infection increased and she developed a pancreatic leak and an abscess in her abdomen.

Her right leg was amputated below her knee as a result of blood clotting problems and she eventually died from multi-organ failure on April 21.

Mrs Banks said the family felt she was not being looked after as her condition got worse.

“We as a family could see she was going downhill and couldn’t understand why clinicians and nurses couldn’t see it,” she said in a statement read to the hearing.

Andrew Smith, a consultant surgeon who carried out the initial operation on Mrs Johnson, said there had been two meetings before the decision was taken to operate after a scan showed the ‘shadow’ on her pancreas.

He said there was a significant chance of the shadow being a cancerous tumour but it was impossible to know for sure.

In a “successful” operation, the shadow, a mass measuring 3.4cm by 2.2cm, turned out to be a cyst.

He maintained the surgery was successful and Mrs Johnson had been unlucky to develop a series of complications.

“I have never seen this combination of problems in any patient,” he said.

“What happened to Christine Johnson was desperately unfortunate. If I could turn back the clock and do anything else I certainly would have.”

Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Hinchliff offered his condolences to the family and said he believed Mrs Johnson’s death was due to “multi-organ failure due to pancreatic leak which was a complication of the original procedure to remove the pancreatic mass”.

  • Read the full story in Thursday's T&A