THE HUSBAND of a woman who died after routine surgery today welcomed a top-level Government inquiry into the hospital where it happened.

Roy Freeman called for honesty and openness from the "no holds barred" review.

Pauline Freeman, 54, died after a routine hysterectomy on a ward at Eastbourne District General Hospital which had only one qualified nurse and three auxiliaries.

The hairdresser from Little Common, Bexhill, suffered a heart attack when a ligature used to tie a main artery slipped, causing massive internal bleeding.

Last month, an independent witness told an inquest that nurses on the under-staffed ward failed to notice she was haemorrhaging.

In March, another inquest heard how 75-year-old Marjorie Dyer, of Eastbourne, choked on her lunch at the hospital. Nurses failed to revive her after mixing up her medical notes with those of another patient.

Mr Freeman, 59, a civil engineer, has since his wife's death been campaigning for more trained nurses at the hospital while calling on the Government to learn swift lessons to prevent a repeat incident.

He said: "This review must be welcomed as a great step forward. I hope we get answers from it because losing my wife for nothing has been horrific.

"It is not just a question of a lack of nurses. It's about a lack of quality, experienced nurses. There is no substitute for experience.

"I and my family genuinely believe that had there been more qualified nurses on that ward that night they would have picked up my wife's condition and she would not have died."

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