Detectives probing an incident at Basildon Hospital which could have killed a patient have been told a vital piece of equipment may have been sabotaged.

Policeman Jeremy Roberts, 40, would have died from oxygen starvation had it not been for the swift reaction of medical staff who averted a tragedy, it has been revealed.

Fortunately, Mr Roberts of Orchard Drive, Grays, made a full recovery.

For more on this story see 'Essex: Hospital workers on leave after boy's death' in the drop-down list at the bottom of this story Police are now linking the incident to a similar one at Broomfield Hospital a few weeks ago in which a nine-year-old boy died after an oxygen pipe became blocked before a routine operation.

A source close to the investigation said of the Basildon incident: "The part of the ventilator machine which failed was different to the piece which led to the death of the boy at Broomfield.

"It is believed that it did not fail because of age or due to an accident, and that leaves investigators with one main avenue of inquiry - that the equipment was tampered with."

A spokesman for Essex Police confirmed that sabotage in the Basildon case would be one of the avenues of inquiry pursued by officers.

No medical staff have been suspended at either Basildon or Broomfield.

Although the two cases have been linked by police, there appears to be one key difference between them.

It is thought the death of nine-year-old Tony Clowes at Broomfield was caused - at least in part - because an oxygen pipe which became blocked had been used more than once, which goes against manufacturers' guidelines.

However, Martin Cresswell, media spokesman for both the Basildon and Thurrock General Hospitals Trust and the South Essex Health Authority, said that was not the case at Basildon.

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