A PRISON boss has apologised to the parents of an inmate who died from a heart attack after doctors failed to diagnose a serious medical condition.

Michael Watson, of Oxford Road, Little Lever, died aged 35 on December 10, 2010, at Salford Royal Hospital. He died being taken there on November 10.

HMP Forest Bank admitted failures which delayed Mr Watson receiving emergency care in hospital and prevented him attending an appointment with a specialist, which could have saved his life, according to an expert speaking at an inquest.

Mr Watson was suffering from endocarditis when he died, an infection which caused bacteria to become attached to a heart valve that had been operated on in 2007.

Before he was convicted for drug offences earlier in the year, Mr Watson had arranged an appointment with a cardio specialist on August 17. This was cancelled as standard practice for security reasons by the prison, but no replacement appointment arranged.

Dr Raphael Perry, an expert in cardiology, told Bolton Coroner’s Court yesterday that had it been rearranged, he would probably not have had a heart attack.

Scans and blood tests would have flagged up the condition, allowing doctors to prescribe antibiotics, which probably would have prevented his heart attack.

The inquest also heard Mr Watson complained of chest pains to a nurse, Deborah Raistrick, at 7.45am on November 10. No GPs were on duty, but Ms Raistrick recommended he be seen as soon as possible. He was not seen until after noon.

When a doctor did see him, he noticed abnormal heart activity on an ECG and called an ambulance.

Prison officers delayed the ambulance leaving for between 40 and 50 minutes as risk assess-ments needed to be carried out.

The paramedics had already argued with officers after security staff tried to confiscate their emergency radio equipment.

According to Dr Perry, the combined delays meant 12 hours passed between Mr Watson’s heart attack and his assessment in hospital, by which point it was too late to consider heart surgery as the organ was too damaged.

Campbell Martin, head of residence at Forest Bank, said: “I accept full responsibility with regard to a number of mistakes we made regarding the time it took to get Mr Watson to hospital. We have made a number of changes to procedure since this incident and would like to express how sorry we are to Michael’s parents.

On the paperwork needed to process an ambulance removing a prisoner, Mr Martin said: “There had been an escape from a hospital escort just before this incident. This meant our aware-ness to this risk was heightened.”

The court has previously heard that doctors failed to diagnose Mr Watson's heart problem.

The jury in Mr Watson’s inquest will retire to consider its verdict tomorrow.