Man who died after prostate surgery was victim of medical misadventure

THE Dublin county coroner has recorded a verdict of death by medical misadventure at an inquest into the death of a man who died the day after a routine prostate operation was performed at a private Co Kildare hospital.

John Higgins, 75, of Alanwood Middle, Naas, Co Kildare, died at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, on the morning of October 16, 2007, the day after undergoing a transurethral resection of the prostrate (TURP) — a common procedure during which a section of an enlarged prostate is removed — at Clane Hospital, Co Kildare.

An inquest at Dublin county coroner’s court into Mr Higgins’s death heard that the procedure performed by Dr John Thornhill on October 15 was uneventful and later that day Mr Higgins was taken to theatre for a wash-out due to a blood-stained catheter.