Drip death widower set to give up

Mr Cabrera was in England on his wife's visa

A Filipino man whose wife died after an injection mix-up during childbirth has said he is on the brink of giving up his fight to stay in Britain.

Before his wife Mayra's death, Arnel Cabrera, 38, was permitted to stay in Britain on the basis she was working as a theatre nurse in Swindon.

In February, an inquest ruled she was unlawfully killed when an epidural anaesthetic was injected into her arm.

Mr Cabrera has been fighting a deportation order since her death.

All applications for leave to enter or remain are carefully considered on their individual merits Home Office spokesman

His lawyers said he was "fed up of waiting" to hear back from the Home Office.

Mr Cabrera said he was giving immigration authorities until Wednesday before he flies home to the Philippines to see the three-year-old son he desperately misses - and effectively gives up on his dream of living in Britain.

In a statement, he said: "I have been unable to return to the Philippines during this difficult period and I desperately miss my young son, Zachary.

"I have promised him a holiday on 17 May as a birthday treat which I am not prepared to cancel under any circumstances as I have missed his last three birthdays.

"I have therefore given the Home Office until the 14 May to make a decision on my application, failing which, I have asked them to return my passport."

Mrs Cabrera died after giving birth to her son Zachary

In May 2004, moments after Mrs Cabrera had given birth to Zachary at the Great Western Hospital, Swindon, she was mistakenly hooked up to a drip in her arm of Bupivacaine, a potent anaesthetic to be administered epidurally.

Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust had previously admitted liability in the case.

Mr Cabrera was subsequently informed after his wife's death that because she was no longer working in the UK he could no longer stay here.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: "All applications for leave to enter or remain are carefully considered on their individual merits.

"Someone can request their passport back and be given it back and that would not invalidate their claim. However, if they leave the country it would."

Zachary has been looked after in the Philippines by his extended family over the past few years while his father pursued a civil claim against the NHS trust.