An inquest into the death of veteran actor Tony Mathews has concluded that the 81-year-old died because his heart could not pump enough blood around his body.
Lawyers representing Mr Mathews’ relatives had argued there had been a series of medical errors following an operation at Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.
The coroner for North East Kent found that there had been sufficient monitoring of Chichester-born Mr Mathews whilst he was a patient but raised a concern about the hospital’s record keeping.
A spokesperson for East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust said it would “carefully review the coroner’s findings to identify any further learning opportunities in addition to the changes we have already put in place”.
Mr Mathews appeared in numerous TV shows during his two-decade career including The Bill and Inspector Morse. The actor was living in Ramsgate at the time of his death.
He was a patient at the hospital’s Spencer Wing for private patients who pay for medical procedures.
He was admitted in December 2023 to reverse a stoma following “life-saving” surgery eight months earlier.
In the days after the operation, Mr Mathews’ condition deteriorated and he was resuscitated through blood transfusions.
The coroner said a doctor’s decision to resume Mr Mathew’s blood thinning medication likely contributed to internal bleeding after the surgery.
