A WIDOWER has launched a legal battle against a hospital trust following the death of his wife.

Arthur Edmunds is seeking compensation of up to £200,000 following his wife's death at the Royal Berkshire Hospital nearly four years ago.

In a writ issued at London’s High Court, he blames hospital staff for her death after back surgery, and says she received negligent medical treatment.

NHS Resolution, acting for the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, has already admitted failing to carry out a procedure, failing to stick to a plan drawn up by a consultant and to make appropriate documents.

But the two sides have failed to agree how much compensation Mr Edmunds, of East Park Farm Drive, Charvil, Reading, should receive, and now the case is expected to end in court where a judge will be asked to decide how much he should receive.

Mrs Edmunds fractured a vertebra after a fall in 2011, and developed back pain, spending three years in care following non-surgical options to lessen her symptoms before agreeing to surgical reconstruction of the thoracic vertebra.

She went into hospital on December 10, 2014, but surgery was complicated by difficulty in accessing the area, and significant bleeding.

The surgical team, who had planned to remove one vertebra and replace it with a metal frame, had to take out two vertebrae, and afterwards she was treated in the intensive care unit.

However, the writ says that she developed problems with breathing, followed by a clot on her lung, and on December 15, her condition abruptly deteriorated after physiotherapy.

She had a cardiac arrest from which she did not recover, and died, aged 69.

Mr Edmunds says the clot on her lung was caused by deep vein thrombosis in her leg, which had travelled into an artery in her lung.

Her treatment had fallen below a reasonable standard, and after she had been diagnosed with a clot on her lung, she was not given a therapeutic dose of anticoagulation, the writ claims.

It also accuses hospital staff of failing to carry out a venogram to exclude deep vein thrombosis, failing to communicate with a senior member of the team over her suitability for anticoagulation, and alleges the surgical team failed to follow up contact by speaking to an intensive care doctor.