Nurse to be sentenced for unlawful killing after patient given wrong blood type

A nurse whose patient died after she gave him the wrong type of blood and then tried to blame a colleague for the mistake will be sentenced today.

Lea Ledesma made a series of mistakes which led to Ali Huseyin, 76, being given type AB blood during a transfusion even though he was blood group O.

The 49-year-old nurse at London Heart Hospital was found guilty of unlawful killing by gross negligence in December following a trial at Southwark Crown Court, the Metropolitan Police said.

Ledesma, of Stevenage in Hertfordshire, will be sentenced at the London court on Thursday.

Mr Huseyin had been in the care of Ledesma after a successful heart bypass operation in May 2014.

He died after a number of errors on Ledesma's part saw her choose the wrong blood from a vending style machine when the patient required a blood transfusion, before checking it against the wrong computer records.

Ledesma initially tried to pass off the error as being a colleague's mistake and only when questioned further did she admit to being distracted and flustered when checking the patient details, police said.