By Chris Brooke
Daily Mail, 27 January 2009

Inquest: Stephen Kettley, 52, may have recovered if his ventilator was kept on

A cancer patient who died after his life support was switched off might have had a chance of getting better, an inquest was told yesterday.

The death of Stephen Ketley, 52, was reported to the coroner because a colleague believed the decision by consultant anaesthetist Sean Bennett to remove his ventilator was 'premature'.

A second colleague told the inquest she was 'very uncomfortable' with the speed at which treatment was withdrawn. In the days before his death Mr Ketley, who
was seriously ill with lung cancer, had apparently been responding well to treatment in the intensive care unit at Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

He was taken off the life support machine without his family being present or involved in the decision, and died the following day, on May 2 last year.

Police investigated the death of Mr Ketley, from Hull, and passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service. But lawyers concluded there was 'insufficient evidence' to charge Dr Bennett with manslaughter by gross negligence.

Yesterday another consultant anaesthetist, Simon Gower, told Hull Coroner's Court that he had been considering a treatment plan for Mr Ketley when he arrived at the intensive care unit to find the ventilator had been switched off.

Dr Gower said he had left instructions to try to wean Mr Ketley off the ventilator.

'I felt he was relatively stable,' he said. 'I felt potentiallywe might be able to get him off the ventilator and back to the ward.'

Asked how he would have arrived at a decision to withdraw a ventilator, he said: 'I would talk to my colleagues to get the opinion of other people involved in the case. I think the family should be involved in decisions.'

Explaining why he reported the case, he said: 'I was concerned because I felt it was premature.'

Dr Caroline Hibbert, the hospital critical care director, said: 'It seemed to be a very quick withdrawal of treatment.

'The problem was that there were no discussions with any other consultant and my concern even more was that there was no discussion with the family.'

Alice Peacock, Mr Ketley's partner-of 30 years, told the hearing she had specifically asked to be present if the ventilator was going to be withdrawn.

After spending most of May 1 at the hospital she was advised by a nurse at 4pm to go home to freshen up.

She was later called and told to come back as Mr Ketley had deteriorated.
When she returned she was surprised to be informed the ventilator had been switched off.

'I thought they would have done that while I was there,' she said.

Dr Philip Lumb, who carried out a post mortem, said there was no evidence that removing the breathing tube had contributed to Mr Ketley's death.

He gave the cause of death as lung cancer.

The inquest continues.

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