NEGLECT by a hospital contributed to the death of a ‘much-loved’ dad, an inquest has found.

Peter Stephens, 64, was admitted to the Leeds General Infirmary after he suffered a heart attack on August 25, 2017.

But Mr Stephens, of Ramsgreave Drive, died at the hospital on September 7, 2017, after suffering a catastrophic brain injury, following problems with his medical treatment.

Area coroner Jonathan Leach concluded at an inquest at Wakefield Coroner’s Court on February 5 that Mr Stephens died of natural causes to which neglect contributed.

The hearing found that Mr Stephen’s death had been contributed to by gross failings on part of nursing staff in charge of his care.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has apologised to the family of Mr Stephens.

The hearing heard that after being admitted to Leeds General Infirmary, Mr Stephens suffered a further cardiac arrest on the morning of August 30 whilst awaiting a procedure to inset an implantable cardiac defibrillator.

The decision was then made to put Mr Stephens on cardiac telemetry monitoring to give medical staff advance warning of any further heart problems.

But on the evening of September 4, the battery on the telemetry unit began to fail.

The inquest heard that despite it being at least 40 minutes before the battery fully depleted, an audible warning was made at the nurses station, with the alarm silenced by nursing staff without the battery being replaced.

The evidence revealed that this alarm would have resounded every three minutes and yet, inexplicably, the battery was never changed.

The inquest also found a failure of the nursing staff on the night shift to observe the telemetry readings at the nurses’ station at any time, despite doing so would have immediately revealed that the battery had died.

And around twelve hours after the warning alarm had first sounded, Mr Stephens suffered a further cardiac arrest at about 6.20 am on September 5.

The inquest also found that the absence of the advance warning that would have been provided by the telemetry system resulted in a delay in medical treatment being provided.

As a result, Mr Stephens suffered a catastrophic brain injury and died on September 7.

Mr Stephen’s son David has spoken of his and the family’s devastation at his father’s death.

He said his dad’s death should have been prevented if the basic healthcare to which he was entitled to had been provided.

In a statement on behalf of the family, he said: “We as a family are devastated at the loss of my father whose death in our view should have been prevented if the basic healthcare to which he was entitled had been provided.

“We would not want any other family to have the same experience and have been left appalled at the multiple failings that have come to light.”

The family said in an acknowledgement in the Lancashire Telegraph that Mr Stephens was a dearly loving husband to Yvonne and a much-loved father to David.

They also described him as a dear father-in-law to Hannah, a treasured grandfather to Olivia and Isaac and a dear brother-in-law-and uncle and only son of Revell and Marian.

Dawn Marshall, interim chief nurse at the trust said Mr Stephen’s death has led to significant improvements in the way it provides care.

She said: “I would like to offer my sincere apologies on behalf of the trust to Mr Stephen’s family following the inquest today.

“An investigation was carried out immediately after this incident and we shared our findings of this with Mr Stephen’s family.

“We have learned important lessons from Mr Stephen’s death which have led to significant improvements in the way we provide care.

“I would like to reiterate how deeply sorry we are that the care we provided failed Mr Stephen’s and his family.”