A Bradford man has spoken about becoming a hospital’s first patient to undergo surgery to repair a ruptured aneurysm under local anaesthetic, after surgeons had two hours to operate or face losing him.

Brian Murgatroyd, 81, of Thackley, was conscious for the three and a half hour procedure to repair a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

He had been transferred from Bradford Royal Infirmary to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, which was the the on-call centre for West Yorkshire at the time of the emergency, after heading to the hospital in intense pain in January.

An abdominal aortic aneurysm is a ballooning of part of the aorta within the abdomen. It usually causes no symptoms unless it ruptures, which can often be fatal.

Mr Murgatroyd’s aneurysm had gone from 3.4mm to 5.9mm.

Speaking about the operation, which saw him discharged six days later instead of a lengthy stay in intensive care, the father-of-two said: “It was like panic stations to get me to Huddersfield. They had two hours to get me there otherwise I wouldn’t have survived. I had to be awake because they didn’t have time to plan which they normally do with operations like this.

“They found they could do my operation through my groin using a local anaesthetic, but I didn’t feel a thing.

“They were telling me what they wanted me to do and to tell them if I felt any pain, which I didn’t.”

Once medics at BRI realised what was wrong with Mr Murgatroyd, he was transferred immediately to the interventional radiology suite in the radiology department at Huddersfield.

During the procedure, consultant vascular surgeon Neeraj Bhasin performed surgery in the groin under local anaesthetic to access the femoral arteries and consultant interventional radiologist, James Simpson inserted a stent designed to seal the ruptured aneurysm.

Mr Bhasin, said: “We were able to perform this as Mr Murgatroyd was in a stable condition, his artery was suitable for a stent and we had the correct stent for the surgery, but it is a first for the Trust and we are delighted he has gone on to make such a great recovery.”

Mr Murgatroyd’s wife Sheila said medics had told her they had never done the procedure before without using general anaesthetic.

“He had 25 clips in each side of his groin and it was horrendous,” she said.

“But the specialists are absolutely delighted with him and he has made a full recovery.”