Catherine died on the operating table. Now police are investigating

Catherine O’Connor was 17 when she died, having lost 14 litres of blood during high-risk surgery on her back.

At her inquest, the surgeon who operated on her, John Bradley Williamson, told the coroner the procedure at Salford Royal Hospital in Greater Manchester had “progressed uneventfully” and “the blood loss was perhaps a little higher than one would usually anticipate but was certainly not extreme”. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

Now Greater Manchester police are examining O’Connor’s death, in February 2007, and whether Williamson misled the coroner during the inquest in September that year.

Catherine's family are now demanding a new inquest into her death in 2007.

This is because in the days after O’Connor’s death, Williamson sent an internal letter to the head of the hospital’s haematology department, Simon Jowitt, describing the surgery as “difficult” and having involved “a catastrophic haemorrhage”. Williamson had also ignored advice to have a second surgeon present during the operation.

Officers led by Detective Inspector Michael Sharples have commissioned two expert reports and sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service ahead of a meeting with the coroner, who has been asked to consider reopening O’Connor’s inquest.

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Source: The Times, 31 March 2024