 |
6/8/10
A PATHOLOGIST is to be investigated after he got details on a post mortem report into a serviceman killed in Afghanistan wrong.
On the report into the death of Senior Aircraftman Christopher Bridge, his mother, Nicolette Williams, from Sheffield, found that the height, weight, hair and eye colour were wrong in the final report.
Dr Nicholas Hunt also recorded that the man on whom he performed the post mortem examination had three tattoos, whereas SAC Bridge had none. The examination was also recorded as taking place two weeks before he died.
Mrs Williams was left fearing that she may have buried the wrong man in her son’s grave. An inquest earlier this week in Sheffield heard Dr Hunt had to issue three reports before all the information was finally correct and the family could be sure the body they had buried was that of SAC Bridge. A spokesman for the Disciplinary Committee for Forensic Pathologists (DCFP) said it would be investigating.
SAC Bridge was killed by an explosion while on night patrol outside Kandahar airfield on August 30, 2007. The 20-year-old, of 51 Squadron RAF Regiment, was a gunner in the back of an open-top Land Rover which was torn in two by a huge bomb buried in the road. He was blown 90ft from the vehicle. Two comrades in the front of the vehicle suffered serious injuries and an Afghan interpreter later died.
SAC Bridge’s body was flown to England and Dr Hunt conducted the post mortem examination at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital on September 10, 2007. He found SAC Bridge died of wounds caused by the blast and there was nothing his colleagues could have done to save him.
Mrs Williams said she had contemplated suicide because the mistakes raised the prospect another man was buried in her son’s grave. She said: “I went through hell because I did not know who had been buried in that coffin. Our family was left in doubt for three months. I was absolutely disgusted, I contemplated taking my own life. I just wanted to be with Christopher. The first report had 14 mistakes. They had the right details of Christopher’s injuries but the description of his body was that of another man. It looks as though the pathologist got them mixed up. The pathologist who made the mistakes should be struck off. He deals with all the military personnel flown back from Afghan-istan, as well as civilians, and should have taken more care. What he did was slapdash. Although he has apologised to the Sheffield coroner, he has not had the decency to apologise to me for what he has put me through – in how many more cases might this have happened?”
“It may be over, but I am not letting things rest.”
A letter of complaint has been sent on Mrs Williams’s behalf to the DCFP.
Last night, a spokesman for the committee said it was expecting the letter to arrive within the next few days and would launch an immediate investigation.
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/8316233.Mum_feared_man_buried_wasn___t_sonMay Nicolette and her family find the peace and happiness they so deserve, once more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gUbTpwOta8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3PG9pqlPc0