A pensioner died three hours after blundering doctors operated on his WRONG lung, an inquest has heard.
Tragic Herbert ‘Jim’ Chandler, 85, had been rushed to hospital five days earlier with a collapsed lung.
But surgeons at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent worked on the opposite organ and he suffered a fatal double collapse.
Respiratory consultant Dr Simon Bourne, who reviewed the case as an independent expert, told the coroner: “There was a chain of errors that led to the death.
“There was a failure to intervene early. You could say there was not a system in place for a respiratory patient.”
The inquest in Folkestone, Kent heard how the blunders including failing to give Mr Chandler a chest drain.
The registrar who carried out the op had been given an inaccurate medical note written by another doctor which said the right lung needed treatment when it was the left.
The registrar, Dr Charlotte Tai carried out a procedure on Mr Chandler, called an aspiration, on the evening of January 22.
This is when air between the chest wall and lung, which causes the collapse, is removed using a needle and syringe.
When she discovered she had treated the wrong lung she carried out an aspiration on the right one.
But both lungs had by now collapsed and Mr Chandler, from Rolvenden, Kent, died about three hours after the treatment.
Rachel Redman, Central and South East Kent coroner, adjourned the hearing to be concluded at a later date.