NHS trust first to face trial for corporate manslaughter after “wholly avoidable” death of patient

Two anaesthetists and the NHS trust that employed them were responsible for the “wholly avoidable” death of a 30 year old teacher, a jury at Inner London Crown Court heard this week.

At the start of the first trial of an NHS trust for corporate manslaughter, John Price QC told the jury that the death of Frances Cappuccini, a healthy young woman whose second baby had been delivered only hours before by emergency caesarean, was “wholly exceptional” and “wholly avoidable.”

Cappuccini’s baby was delivered at 8 28 am on 9 October 2012 at Pembury Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.1 She had a significant postpartum haemorrhage and …