A grieving widow has appealed to people in Bristol to help - after she lost her husband’s wedding ring just minutes after he died.
Kathy Kerr had been handed her husband Brian’s ring after paramedics and medical staff at the Bristol Royal Infirmary had fought in vain to save him following a devastating heart attack.
But in the trauma, shock and grief of that moment, as family arrived at the hospital to comfort her, the ring was lost somewhere between the hospital and her brother-in-law’s car.
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Kathy and her family say they have been doubly devastated by the loss, and are now appealing for any help from anyone to find it.
Kathy and Brian had been together 36 years and would have been celebrating their 16th wedding on Friday this week.
But tragedy struck last month over the Easter weekend, when Brian began complaining of chest pains. An ambulance was called to their home in Swindon, and paramedics said he’d had two mild heart attacks, treated him and then put him in an ambulance to take him to hospital, with Kathy following on behind. But as the ambulance left their home, Brian suffered a huge cardiac arrest, and the paramedics stopped the ambulance, began resuscitation and called for back-up.
In the end, Brian was stabilised and rushed to the Heart Institute at the Bristol Royal Infimary, where he was put on life support as doctors battled to save him.
“I was allowed in the ambulance, and when we got to Bristol, he was rushed straight into resus,” said Kathy. “They came to me and I asked if I could go and see him, and I told him that I loved him. I was told they were going to do a procedure to try to save him, and after three-quarters of an hour they came and said he had gone.
“About half an hour later, a kind nurse came with his clothes and asked if there was anything else, and I asked if I could take his wedding ring. He handed me his wedding ring, and I put it onto my little finger. It felt a bit big so I put it into my bag.
“By this point my daughter, my brother-in-law, and other family had come and obviously we were all distraught. We were there for a bit and then had to leave the hospital. We walked up the hill to the car, and by the time I got there, I looked in my bag and I couldn’t find the ring.
“My daughter turned my bag inside out looking for it and we searched all over but couldn’t find it. I know it’s only a ring, but I lost my husband that day and it means so much. He never took it off unless he had to because his finger had swollen up, and even then he would be desperate to put it back on. I was devastated enough and then I was devastated to lose that too,” she added.
Mrs Kerr and her family have searched the hospital and asked staff there to look out for it if it has been handed in. They say it could be somewhere in the Heart Institute car park at the back of the BRI, or up Alfred Hill or Horfield Road.
The ring is a plain gold band, size T, and Mrs Kerr said she would offer a reward for anyone who hands it in, or finds it. If you can help, or have found it, get in touch with Bristol Live by emailing tristan.cork@reachplc.com
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