Woman Dies During Heart Surgery After Hospital Loses Power

A 77-year-old woman died during a routine heart procedure after the hospital’s operating room plunged into darkness for ten agonizing minutes — and a coroner says she would likely be alive today if the power had stayed on.

Jean Dye was undergoing an angioplasty with stenting at Scunthorpe General Hospital in England in September 2020. The minimally invasive procedure, common in both the U.K. and U.S., involves threading a tiny balloon and metal stent into a blocked artery to restore blood flow. In most cases, patients go home within a day. For Jean, it was supposed to be a straightforward surgery.

Instead, it turned fatal.

During the most critical stage of the procedure — when surgeons had just minutes to deploy the stent — the operating room suffered what investigators later called “a sudden and unexpected failure of electrical power.”

“All the imaging equipment went down instantly,” senior coroner Paul Smith told the inquest. “Without X-ray guidance, the team was unable to continue.”

Staff, who had never faced such a scenario before, could not reset the circuit themselves. The breaker was located in another part of the hospital, and there was no indicator in the operating room to pinpoint the problem. Instead, they waited for an engineer to arrive, enter a separate plant room, and restore the power. The delay: ten minutes.

By then, Jean’s chance for survival had slipped away.

Once the power came back, surgeons completed the stent placement — but it was too late. Jean never regained consciousness. Her death was later attributed to an artery dissection during the procedure.

Smith’s conclusion was blunt: “On the balance of probabilities, Mrs. Dye would have survived but for the loss of electrical power.”

He also noted that faster action could have changed the outcome: “Had staff been able to reset the circuit themselves, the downtime would likely have been significantly reduced.”

Jean’s family waited nearly five years for the official findings. The “Prevention of Future Deaths” report, released August 13, 2025, has been sent to NHS England and the Health Service Executive, which have until August 28 to respond.

Among Smith’s recommendations:

• Move or duplicate circuit reset controls so staff can access them instantly in emergencies.
• Install visible indicators in operating rooms showing when a circuit is active.
• Train surgical teams for power-loss scenarios.

“In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken,” Smith warned.

While the case occurred in the U.K., experts say the risk is not unique to British hospitals. In the United States, operating rooms are equipped with backup generators — but rare failures still occur. In 2021, for example, a New Orleans hospital reported a partial power loss during a procedure after Hurricane Ida damaged backup systems.

Dr. Michael Kessler, a cardiothoracic surgeon in Boston not connected to the case, said, “A power outage during a cardiac procedure is every surgeon’s nightmare. The margin for error is razor-thin.”

For Jean Dye’s family, the nightmare is permanent.

“She walked into that hospital expecting to come home,” one relative told reporters. “She didn’t stand a chance once that power went out.”