A MOTHER-of-four from Yate who was rushed into hospital with gallstones died after an operation not carried out for a further three months left her brain dead.

Kerry Hall, 31, from Gathorne Crescent, was first thought to have food poisoning when she was examined by GP Dr Jillian Wilson at Courtside Surgery in Yate. She was advised to rest and drink plenty of fluids but returned the following day with severe abdominal pains and was rushed to hospital by ambulance.

Kerry was found to have acute pancreatitis, a serious condition affecting 25,000 people in the UK a year, when she was admitted to Southmead Hospital in late March 2015.

She developed infected pancreatic necrosis, a serious complication which carries a one in five risk of death, but the housewife battled the condition, defying doctors’ odds, until June when she was finally moved to the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI) for an endoscopic pancreatic necrosectomy (keyhole surgery to remove the dead tissue from the pancreas).

An inquest into her death at Flax Bourton Coroners’ Court on Tuesday (January 26) heard how surgeons found little dead tissue and hoped Kerry would recover from the high-risk operation.

Surgeon Margaret Finch-Jones, who carried out the operation on June 12, told the inquest: “She was sedated for a few days to help her stabilise but unfortunately when sedation stopped Kerry did not show signs of waking up. A scan showed her brain was quite swollen.

“We don’t know why the brain was swollen, we felt we had found any source of sepsis that could be identified based on what we saw.

“It was a surprise outcome to me.”

Kerry died on June 17, leaving behind four children all aged under 13.

Dr Christopher Wong, who led Kerry’s care during her stay at Southmead, said the surgery should have been carried out sooner.

He said her condition had deteriorated on Friday, May 29 but on his return to work on Tuesday, June 2 no bed at the BRI, where the less invasive endoscopic version of the operation is carried out, was available.

“There was no bed on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday,” he said. “I saw her that Tuesday morning and she was very ill.

“She needed an operation that day in my opinion. I had a very frank discussion with her and told her she may die and that it was very serious.”

He said although she was transferred later that day, the fact the surgery was postponed for a further week ‘certainly didn’t help’.

Added Dr Wong: “There is no hard and fast rule of when to start thinking of the operation, it is a last chance saloon and the chances of mortality are extremely high.

“But I thought we reached that line that day and felt strongly enough that we would have carried out open surgery at Southmead if a bed at the BRI was not made available.”

Mrs Finch-Jones said, however, she did not believe carrying out the operation sooner ‘would have made a difference’.

Assistant coroner Terence Moore ruled a verdict of natural causes.

“I have looked at all interventions and asked myself was anything done other than to assist and keep the patient alive which led to her death or shortened her life and in my view it was not. Everything was done properly.”

After the inquest, her partner of three years David Langton told the Gazette he accepted the coroner's ruling.

He added: "Kerry was a loving, caring mother and a devoted partner. She was the love of my life."