Who is Jean Dye? British Woman Dies During Heart Surgery After Hospital Loses Power for 10 Minutes

A 77-year-old British woman, Jean Dye, died during heart surgery after a sudden power cut at Scunthorpe General Hospital. The power outage lasted for 10 minutes and even the backup generator failed to start.

Jean was undergoing a heart procedure for cardiac disease. Doctors were about to place stents in her arteries when the electricity went out. The blackout also triggered the Emergency Power Off circuit, which stopped the backup power from working.

Surgeons could not continue the operation and had to wait for an engineer to arrive. The engineer had to reset the circuit from a different plant room. This delay meant doctors could not give the urgent treatment she needed.

The inquest report said the lack of power was a “critical factor” in Jean Dye’s death. She died from an iatrogenic dissection, a tear in an artery that can occur during surgery.

Senior coroner Paul Smith stated that if staff had known the cause of the outage, they might have fixed the problem faster without waiting for an engineer. The downtime, he said, could have been much shorter.

The cause of the power cut is still unknown. The incident has raised serious questions about hospital emergency systems and backup power readiness.