A WIDOW has described her anguish after her husband died from a stroke when health professionals failed to spot his symptoms three times.

Jeffrey Wingrove died in December 2006, aged 47, despite his wife calling an out-of-hours doctor service twice and being told by an ambulance paramedic he did not need to go to hospital.

Isabelle Wingrove spoke out after she and youngest son Marc, 14, were awarded a six-figure sum in an out-of-court settlement for clinical negligence against a GP and the East of England Ambulance Service NHS trust.

Mrs Wingrove, 52, said: “My life has been taken. I feel ripped apart.”

Eldest son Danny, 23, who is an airline cabin crew worker, said: “I was flying from Washington. I never got the opportunity to say goodbye at all.”

The couple would have celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary this year.

Mr Wingrove, who worked for Chelmsford Council’s refuse service, collapsed on December 9, 2006.

His wife and Marc lifted him into bed after he developed a sudden and severe headache, vomiting and dizziness.

Mrs Wingrove, an art and design technician at Notley High School, Braintree, called the out-of-hours doctor service, described her husband’s symptoms and was told to take him to Chelmsford’s Broomfield Hospital.

In a recording of the call, heard by the Gazette, she asked for a doctor to make a home visit because she could not move her husband.

But she was told it was not the out-of-hours policy to make home visits to such patients.

Mrs Wingrove called again, but the doctor still refused and wrote out a prescription for vertigo, which was faxed to a chemist for collection.

Mr Wingrove was unable to leave the bed throughout the evening.

His wife dialled 999 and when the ambulance, arrived the paramedic prescribed Mr Wingrove paracetomol, saying he was dehydrated.

After a sleepless night, Mr Wingrove fell out of bed in the afternoon. He was incoherent and could not recognise his wife or son.

An ambulance took him to Broomfield Hospital where a scan showed he had suffered a stroke.

He was transferred to Queen’s Hospital in Romford where he had an operation to relieve the pressure on his brain, but died the next day.

Medics have told the family he would have survived had he been diagnosed sooner.

The family intends to make a complaint to the General Medical Council about the GP.

A spokeswoman for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust said: “We have co-operated fully with the investigation and do not feel it is appropriate to comment.”

Primecare, which contracted the GP, was unavailable for comment.