THE daughter of a man who died following a string of medical errors said she was "shocked and appalled" after an inquest this week.
Frank Locke, 83, died on January 13 this year after treatment at both Southampton General Hospital and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital last September and October.
Mr Locke, a retired photographer from Portchester Road, developed abdominal pains after heart surgery in Southampton which soon led to a further operation. An inquest, which concluded in Winchester on Wednesday, was told his central line catheter became infected and had to be replaced.
The procedure was carried out by an unsupervised junior doctor who admitted during the hearing he had failed to read through the complete process.
The coroner ruled that the father of four suffered a stroke as a result of a central line being incorrectly inserted, piercing his artery.
After the operation Mr Locke was transferred to RBH where, due to the stroke, he experienced severe weight loss, dropping from 85.3kg to 67.5kg in a matter of weeks. This reduced his ability to recover after the operations.
The pathology report stated Mr Locke died from bronchopneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischaemic heart disease and a cerebral infarction. Grahame Short, senior coroner for South Hampshire, recorded a narrative verdict. He said the "critical factors" in Mr Locke’s death were the lack of supervision of the junior doctor, poor communication between the two hospitals and delays in RBH stabilising the patient's drop in weight.
Mr Locke's daughter, Elizabeth Woodhams, said there were still questions that had gone unanswered.
"We're pleased the coroner did a very thorough job," she said. "We did learn more about what had happened which was helpful.
"Some evidence was really quite shocking.
"The mistake that was made in Southampton - putting a line into the artery rather than the vein - I still don't know why they asked a junior doctor to do it when he hadn't done it before.
"We didn't really get any straight answers from Southampton about that.
"The really shocking thing is that the doctor was allowed to carry out the procedure without proper instruction.
"They didn't do any of the following tests and didn't notice any problems until 2pm the next day when the nurse noticed a weakness on his left side which is an indication of stroke."
The inquest heard both Bournemouth and Southampton hospitals had since reviewed their policies over weighing patients upon admission.
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