A FORMER nurse from Somerset sadly passed away after a three month cancer diagnosis delay.

Fiona Hodder, from Mark, had experienced several weeks of severe abdominal pain, nausea and weight loss.

She had CT scans in Weston General Hospital and was treated for a bowel abscess, but soon visited the hospital three more times in pain, and was given laxatives and medicine for heartburn.

On Christmas day 2018, Fiona was admitted to Weston General Hospital and following a CT scan, has surgery to remove a blockage in her bowel.

A biopsy then showed Fiona had cancer.

After the operation, it was discovered Fiona had suffered a leaking bowel and developed sepsis.

After two more operations - during which doctors believed she suffered a stroke - her condition deteriorated and her family made the decision to turn off her life support.

And now Fiona’s family are determined to raise money for the UK Sepsis Trust.

Tony, Fiona’s husband of 42 years, puts on a special Christmas light display each year and Fiona’s daughter ran the London Marathon in 2019.

Tony said: “Fiona was in terrible pain for months but every time she visited the hospital we put our trust in what we were being told.

“However, this went on for several months and it was dreadful to see her suffering. It came to a head on Christmas Day 2018. I took my wife into hospital and never expected that she wouldn’t return home.

“Seeing her in intensive care was an awful experience.

“It was difficult to understand why she wasn’t making a recovery. The decision to withdraw her life support is the hardest decision any of our family will ever have to make.

“Fiona was a wonderful and caring person, not only as a wife, mum and grandmother but as a nurse. She spent most of her life caring for and helping others.

"It’s difficult not to get upset as when she needed help the most she was badly let down.

“If her cancer had been diagnosed earlier, we know Fiona would still have been poorly but she wouldn’t have developed sepsis and faced the suffering and pain she did and we believe she wouldn’t have died.”

Tony and the couple’s children - Rebecca, 42, and Vicky, 39, asked Irwin Mitchell, medical negligence lawyers, to look into the circumstances surrounding Fiona’s death.

Eleri Davies, specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “If Fiona’s cancer had been diagnosed when it should have been she could have undergone earlier elective surgery to treat her cancer and she wouldn’t have developed a bowel obstruction necessitating emergency surgery which led to sepsis and her death.

“It’s now vital that lessons are learned from this case to improve patient safety for others.

“We’ll continue to support Fiona’s family as they try and come to terms with their loss the best they can and raise money for UK Sepsis Trust.”

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust admitted a breach of duty - they admitted a failure to investigate Fiona’s condition further in August 2018.

The trust acknowledged that with appropriate care Fiona’s cancer would have been diagnosed, at the latest, by early October 2018.

The trust denied the Christmas Day surgery was negligent but accepted that Fiona would not have died if a decision not to reconnect her bowel - in favour of leaving her with a stoma - had been made.

Dr William Oldfield, medical director at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I would like to reiterate our sincere apologies to Fiona’s family for the errors that were made in her care.

“We have accepted liability and offer our deepest condolences to the family for their loss.”

For more information about sepsis, visit sepsistrust.org.