A WOMAN has launched a High Court action against York Hospital, claiming clinical negligence may have killed her husband.

Retired hospital worker and father-of-one, Peter Gilligan, 65, from the Huntington Road area of York, died in January 2008 following keyhole surgery at the hospital to repair a hernia.

However, his widow, Sharon, believes he could be alive today if medical staff had informed him of the risks of keyhole surgery in his case, if they had diagnosed and treated an ensuing infection and if he had not suffered a perforated bowel during surgery.

In 2008, York Coroner Donald Coverdale said the surgeon who carried out the operation, Wingzou Wong, had acted “properly and appropriately”, and recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

But Mrs Gilligan’s solicitor, Jane Radcliffe, told The Press that independent expert advice had been obtained, which suggested that Mr Gilligan’s bowel was perforated during surgery and he went on to develop an infection as a direct result of this.

His widow hopes to receive more than £50,000 for damages and the pain suffered by Mr Gilligan in his final days, as well as the loss of a loving husband and father. The upper limit for compensation in the case is £250,000.

Ms Radcliffe said: “The tragedy of Mr Gilligan’s death is that it could have been avoided if the infection had been diagnosed and treated earlier.” Mr Gilligan, who left behind a daughter, now aged ten, underwent a hernia operation in 2005 after suffering from abdominal pain.

He made a good recovery, but in 2007 was found to have an “incisional hernia”, and doctors agreed with him that it should be repaired by keyhole surgery.

The claim against the hospital alleges that Mr Gilligan was not told of the risk of bowel injury from the procedure and should have been recommended open surgery.

A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “As this is an ongoing case we are unable to make any comment at this time.”

A date has yet to be set for the case to go before the High Court.