Expert says device not likely to have caused Bethany's death

1:12pm Friday 23rd November 2007

A MEDICAL expert called in to the inquest of Cricklade girl Bethany Bowen has said he does not think that the instrument used to remove her spleen was responsible for her death.

Bethany died during the splenectomy at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in July last year.

The inquest has already heard that the surgeons carrying out the procedure had not previously used a morcellator - a bladed coring device - before.

Gordon McKinley, a consultant paediatrician from Edinburgh's Sick Children's Hospital, said: "I had not seen a morcellator until I started preparing for this case. I personally had concerns about the sharp blade.

"It seems unlikely to me that the morcellator caused the injury to the aorta that led to her death."

The inquest is due to conclude today.