British Woman Dies During Heart Surgery After Power Failure and Backup Generator Malfunction at Scunthorpe Hospital

Jean Dye was undergoing heart surgery when a power cut happened, an inquest heard

A 77-year-old British woman died during heart surgery when Scunthorpe General Hospital suffered a sudden power outage and the backup generator failed, leaving the operating team without electricity for 10 minutes.

Jean Dye, who was undergoing surgery for cardiac disease on September 7, 2024, was in the middle of a procedure to place cardiac stents when power was unexpectedly lost. According to findings from a newly released coroner’s inquest, the Emergency Power Off circuit was triggered during the blackout, overriding the hospital’s backup electrical system and cutting power to the operating theater at a critical moment.

Loss of power meant surgeons were unable to use vital equipment

Surgeons were unable to continue the procedure and had to wait for an engineer to reset the circuit. The delay severely limited the medical team’s ability to provide the necessary treatment. Dye suffered an iatrogenic dissection — a tear in an artery caused during a medical procedure — and died before power could be restored.

The inquest stated that the delay in restoring power was a “critical factor” in Dye’s death. Senior coroner Paul Smith noted that if hospital staff had known the cause of the outage and been able to reset the circuit without waiting for an engineer, the downtime could have been reduced significantly. The exact cause of the power failure has not been identified.