Man died after snoring cure op

Alan Suter had undergone an earlier operation for snoring

A coroner has questioned the time it took to deal with a patient who died from breathing problems after going into hospital for an operation to cure snoring.

Fifty-nine-year-old Alan Suter from Cross Keys, near Newport, south Wales, died after a tube to help him breathe slipped from his windpipe, an inquest in Cardiff heard.

The court heard how nurses at Llandough Hospital delayed calling a doctor for 10 minutes as they desperately tried to find out what had gone wrong.

Coroner Dr Lawrence Addicott, who recorded a verdict of accidental death, said he was concerned about the delay in a doctor being summoned.

He said he would write to the health trust to recommend training for nurses in similar situations.

Mr Suter died in July - 19 days after he was first admitted to the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, for an operation to remove a nasal blockage which had led to snoring and problems sleeping.

But I am concerned from what appears to me to have been a significant delay before doctors were called. Coroner Dr Lawrence Addicott

The factory worker had undergone similar surgery two years earlier - but his nasal problem had reappeared.

The inquest was told that the latest operation was stopped after his oxygen levels and blood pressure had dropped "dangerously low" under anaesthetic.

Mr Suter was given a tracheotomy - a surgical puncture of the throat - before he was transferred to Llandough Hospital near Cardiff because of a shortage of intensive care beds.

His condition was improving and he was being "weaned off" a ventilator - even sitting up in a chair - before the trachea tube in his windpipe became displaced.

Nurse Teresa Owen, who is in charge of the hospital's intensive care unit, told the hearing Mr Suter started having problems when he was put back in bed.

"He was very discoloured and the ventilation machine was alarming, " she said.

Ventilator alarms

"He mouthed something to me and took my hand."

The coroner said it was not "fully established" why the tube inserted to help Mr Suter's breathing has become displaced.

"But I am concerned from what appears to me to have been a significant delay before doctors were called," he said.

"There had been two ventilator alarms and it was a situation which required immediate attention.

"But there was a delay of 10 minutes while staff tried to establish why the airways were blocked before a doctor was called."

A spokeswoman for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust said they would be addressing the recommendations of the coroner when they received them.