AN OSWESTRY man's death might have been prevented had he not been misdiagnosed by a locum doctor, a coroner has ruled.

Alan Spencer Busby, 69, died in hospital in Stoke on June 30, 2019 after emergency surgery on his brain following a fall days earlier at home. After his initial fall, he was released from Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's (RSH) A&E with a diagnosis of vertigo.

Originally, Mr Busby's death had been ruled as natural causes by an inquest in Stoke, but a request from Dr Adrian Marsh – from RSH – to John Ellery, Shropshire coroner, to investigate a potential misdiagnosis, led to a transfer of the case from Stoke's Coroner's office.

At the hearing on Thursday, October 22, the inquest heard from Dr Vytautas Liesis, a locum doctor at RSH that treated Mr Busby before allowing him to return home, as well as Dr Marsh and Dr Alexis Jones, who both told the inquest that Mr Busby had been misdiagnosed.

Dr Jones told the inquest that she would have ordered a CT scan where as Dr Liesis argued that Mr Busby had told him he had no headache.

However, on Thursday, Mr Ellery agreed with Drs Jones and Marsh in his conclusion that Mr Busby's death was preventable.

He said: "Alan Spencer Busby attended the emergency department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital via ambulance on June 25, 2019 at 8.48pm after an episode of collapse at home.

"He had a two-day history of headache with neck stiffness, off his legs, vomiting and unsteady when standing.

"Following an assessment by the emergency medicine locum registrar he was diagnosed as having benign positional vertigo and discharged home. He subsequently deteriorated requiring readmission the following morning at 9.41am.

"Following a CT scan he was then transferred to Royal Stoke University Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery but sadly died four days later on June 30.

"An appropriate assessment and diagnosis of Mr Busby's condition on the evening of June 25, 2019 would have led to a CT scan being performed and that in turn would have led to an earlier transfer to and surgery at Royal Stoke University Hospital with either a complete or partial recovery and at its lowest not dying when he did."

Mr Ellery recorded a conclusion of preventable death following a missed diagnosis.