A PATIENT who died within two days of going into hospital may have bled to death as a result of a medical procedure that went wrong, an inquest heard yesterday.

Robert Swan, 65, was admitted to the University Hospital of Hartlepool last October, a month after undergoing extensive surgery for lung cancer.

Whilst he was in hospital for the second time, doctors inserted a needle into Mr Swan's chest to withdraw fluid.

However, within 45 minutes of receiving the procedure, called a diagnostic tap, the patient became breathless and his blood pressure dropped. He died ten hours later from internal bleeding.

A post-mortem examination revealed that, by the time of his death, six pints of blood had flooded into Mr Swan's chest.

Consultant pathologist Dr Jan Lowe, who carried out the post-mortem examination, told a Hartlepool inquest yesterday that it was probable the injection had ruptured an artery, resulting in massive blood loss.

Dr Lowe said: "It is probable that the thin needle, out of bad luck, struck an artery during the tap."

Dr Lowe said hitting an artery was a recognised risk when carrying out the procedure but he said it only happened in one to two per cent of cases.

Yesterday's inquest was attended by family and friends of Mr Swan, a retired taxi driver from Peterlee.

Leslie Jamason, a close personal friend of the dead man, said the family were concerned that inexperienced doctors had been allowed to carry out the procedure on Mr Swan.

Standing beside Mr Swan's widow, Helena, Mr Jamason said: "We feel that quite honestly this could have been avoided."

Hartlepool Coroner Malcolm Donnelly recorded a narrative verdict, saying the death was caused by internal bleeding due to a medical intervention following an operation for lung cancer.

However, a consultant physician at the University Hospital denied the injection had ruptured an artery.

He said the internal bleeding was a result of complications from the first operation which had been brought on by the spreading cancer.

Mr Swan had undergone a serious operation a month earlier at James Cook Hospital, in Middlesbrough, to remove part of his chest wall. Dr Lowe said the earlier surgery had not led to his death.