Castle Hill Hospital removed the key cause from the certificate after a botched heart procedure killed a veteran

Lisa Jones and her sister Marie Holmes sat in their mother’s garden holding two death certificates for their father Brian Holmes. The contradiction still haunts them.

Brian died in 2019 after undergoing a Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implant at Castle Hill Hospital near Hull. At the time, his family were told the valve had simply got stuck. What they did not know was that the entire procedure had gone catastrophically wrong.

A leaked review by the Royal College of Physicians later confirmed the device had been implanted too high and floated loose in Brian’s aorta. He was rushed into emergency open heart surgery and suffered a fatal haemorrhage. His first death certificate noted the failed TAVI and resulting pneumonia.

Then a second certificate appeared.

Issued quietly by the hospital, the new version removed all mention of the TAVI procedure. It now blamed pneumonia and severe aortic stenosis—completely omitting what had gone wrong on the operating table. The Royal College called the care “very poor” and said the new certificate failed to reflect what actually caused Brian’s death.

“I feel sick,” said his widow, 74 year old Mrs Holmes. “They said they did all they could, but it turns out they made a terrible mistake and then tried to hide it.” Her daughter Lisa added, “It was like they were rewriting history. We only found out the truth from the leaked report.”

That review painted a devastating picture of failings at Castle Hill. Poor decision making, improper device placement, and misleading death documentation were all cited. Brian’s case is one of at least 11 deaths following TAVI procedures at the hospital between 2019 and 2023. Another six have died since mid 2024.

Castle Hill’s death rate from TAVI stands at 2.2 percent—well above the national average of 1.3 percent.

Seven families, including the Holmeses, have now instructed Hudgell Solicitors to demand answers. “The trust claims lessons have been learned,” said Neil Hudgell. “But how can we believe that when they’ve hidden the Royal College report from public view?”

Humberside Police have launched an investigation into the deaths. Officers say it remains in the early stages and no arrests have been made. Meanwhile, NHS England and the Care Quality Commission have increased scrutiny of the trust. The CQC previously rated surgical safety at Castle Hill as inadequate.

Despite the mounting pressure, the hospital continues to deny wrongdoing. A spokesperson said that altering a death certificate following a coroner’s discussion is standard practice. But for families left grieving, the explanation rings hollow.

Marie Holmes said, “We buried Dad thinking the hospital did everything right. Now we are living a second nightmare realising they didn’t just fail him—they tried to bury the truth too.”