A MAN who suffered from heart and lung disease died at Burnley General Hospital after he decided to go through with a high-risk operation.

Edward Thomlinson, 64, of Hollins Road, Nelson died on September 10, 1999, of multi-organ failure and bronchial pneumonia, a post mortem examination revealed.

Mr Thomlinson, who smoked 40 cigarettes a day, was referred to consultant, general and vascular surgeon, Dr Haytham Al-Khaffaf, at Burnley General Hospital because of poor circulation in his legs.

He was said to have told Dr Al-Khaffaf that he could not walk further than 100 yards and it was discovered he had multiple narrowing of the arteries in both legs.

Dr Al-Khaffaf told East Lancashire Coroner David Smith that he had explained to Mr Thomlinson that in order to improve his circulation it would carry some risk as he was a fairly high-risk patient. He said the first option of putting a balloon in to stretch his arteries would not be possible and that the only other option would be to do a by-pass operation.

He said Mr Thomlinson was keen to have something done to stop the pain in his legs but some time after the operation, he started to struggle with his breathing.

This led to heart and kidney failure and multi-organ failure.

Coroner David Smith recorded a verdict of misadventure and pointed out that since Mr Thomlinson had chosen to have the operation it could not be recorded as death from natural causes.

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