HEALTH chiefs are investigating after a man died only three days after being sent home from York Hospital.

The distraught widow of Bill Wood, 52, has lodged a formal complaint over her husband’s treatment during a five-day stay at the hospital before Christmas.

Sheila Wood alleges in her complaint letter that her husband had been on oxygen because of severe breathing difficulties when he was suddenly discharged shortly before Christmas, without any oxygen supplies.

“He was unable even to walk to the car because of lack of breath,” she said.

“The answer – they gave me a wheelchair to get him to the car.”

She said that after getting back to their home at Linton-on-Ouse, the previously healthy father-of-three could barely speak without becoming “frighteningly breathless”.

He collapsed on Christmas Day, just as she was ringing the emergency doctor service.

The doctor tried to explain how their daughter Hannah should perform CPR until paramedics arrived. “They did all they could, but my husband died.”

She said she had been told by a coroners’ officer that a post-mortem examination had shown Bill was suffering from chronic pneumonia, with one lung “completely solid” and the other three parts solid, and he also showed signs of heart disease.

Mrs Wood, 50, alleged:

• Tests for swine flu had to be carried out three times because the results were lost on the first two occasions. The test eventually proved negative.

• Her husband told her he pressed an emergency button one night because his breathing was so laboured he felt he was gasping for life, but had to wait 15 minutes before anyone responded.

• She repeatedly asked for advice on the ward, but no one ever kept her informed, apart from one occasion when she was told Bill was a “very ill” man and it would be a long road to recovery.

She said in her letter that the questions she was asking were not rhetorical. “I want and expect answers to them,” she said.

“I will not let my dearly loved husband’s death go untold. I want to know why and I will persist until I receive some answers from you.”

She told The Press: “I do not want anyone else to go through the hell that we have been through over the past fortnight.”

A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are disappointed to hear of any occasion where it is felt that the care received fell below the standard we would expect.

“These concerns are being investigated through our complaints procedure and a report on the findings will be made available to the family.”