Gran dies after being given wrong blood type

Margaret Davies, 67, was given type A instead of type O when her case notes are believed to have been mixed up with those of another patient with the same name.

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She died the following day. Three nurses have been suspended and police have launched an investigation into the death at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside.

Her devastated husband, Malcolm, also 67, said he would be taking legal action.

"It was like giving her a lethal injection,' he said.

"It is unbelievable. My wife was a beautiful woman who lived for her family. She deserved better than this."

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Mrs Davies, a retired civil servant from St Helens, Merseyside, was being treated for lymphoma - cancer of the blood - which was diagnosed shortly before Christmas.

She began chemotherapy in February but was later admitted to Whiston Hospital suffering from anaemia.

During her stay she contracted the superbug clostridium difficile, which damages the gut and can be fatal.

But it was during a transfusion for anaemia on April 18 that the fatal blunder occurred.

Mr Davies said: "Margaret had cancer but all the doctors told us she was improving. They gave her the transfusion and she seemed fine. I visited her the next day and she complained of a pain in her side but was talking and seemed her normal self. I went home but a couple of hours later the hospital phoned and said my wife wanted me.

"When I got there she was on oxygen, she seemed in shock, she was shaking and her breathing was shallow. A few hours later she was dead, I couldn't believe it."

Mr Davies, a retired carpenter and greengrocer, said he was called to the hospital the following day where doctors admitted the mistake.

"I nearly fell off my chair. I couldn't take it in,' he said. 'I wish I'd gone into the hospital and dragged her out while I had the chance."

The couple, who had been married for 46 years, have two daughters and a son, five grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

A spokesman for St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust, confirmed they were investigating an 'incident'.