THE son of a former Gillingham trader says he is numb after a doctor was allowed to continue practising despite his mother dying after being given the wrong blood during an operation. Matthew Catton, of Mincers Close, Lordswood, Chatham, believes the severe reprimand the General Medical Council gave Dr John Prickett did not go far enough.

Hilary Pearce, admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge for brain surgery two years ago, died on her 62nd birthday when she was given A positive blood, when she was O positive.

The committee heard that Dr Prickett failed to check the blood against her hospital identification number and notes. Mr Catton, 34, said: "I have just felt numb ever since this happened. I am happy with him being found guilty, but he should have been struck off. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders but I am still dealing with the loss of my mother.

Mrs Pearce, formerly of Fairfax Close, Parkwood, ran Hilary's wool shop in Waterloo Road, Gillingham. She became a telephone operator at the old British Telecom call centre off Chatham High Street, before moving up to Cambridgeshire and marrying her second husband.

Father-of-two Mr Catton was at the hearing in London with his sister, brother and stepfather. "The week before this happened she was up and about and because of this mistake a healthy woman died," he stressed. "I feel that some good has come of this in that procedures have been tightened, but it won't bring my mother back."

The council heard how Dr Prickett made a "basic and simple error" by not checking Mrs Pearce's blood type when she was admitted to hospital. She suffered a cardiac arrest five minutes after the mistake and could not be revived.

Dr Prickett, an Australian doctor who came to Britain in 1996, told the committee he had been doing three things at once, was stressed and confused Mrs Pearce with another woman having surgery for a brain tumour.

Dr George Ingrams, who made a report of the case to the Royal College of Anaesthetists, claimed it was a failure of the system at AddenbrookeÕs Hospital.

Committee chairman John Shaw told Dr Prickett that the committee was "prepared to accept this was an isolated, if serious, failure in an otherwise unblemished career".

But he added: "This was a fundamental failing of a serious nature and fell significantly short of the standard of care expected."