'I just want questions answered so people are aware of other choices'

GRIEVING MUM 'STILL WAITING FOR ANSWERS' AFTER SON'S DEATH

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She added that she was concerned that it had not been made clear to them that senior medics had been employed by the health-tech firm, and that if she had known about the statistics around the Heartware device's success, they would have made a different choice.

She said: "If we had been given the true facts I would have said actually we don't want this. He had had such bad luck in surgery - we are not a very lucky family.

"If he hadn't had the LVAD, he could have been prioritised for transplant. But we were led to believe the LVAD would give him a much better quality of life, that clearly wasn't true."

Tessa said that the failure of the device, when Greg was with his family in Yorkshire, had been terrifying.

She said: "He was at home when it failed, we were all having dinner. It was awful when it went off. He went 'mum, I don't feel right'.

"We called an ambulance but also knew we needed him to be taken to Newcastle. And because of the devices, we knew they couldn't shock his heart. That journey was an incredibly fraught one."

The surgery to fit the LVAD led to a debilitating stroke - and Tessa said afterwards Greg struggled a great deal.

"He really struggled after the surgery that led to the stroke," she said. "His perspective was he would only go through that again if it was for a new heart."

Tessa said that hearing about the issues with the device - and coping with the bad luck Greg seemed to go through, was very difficult.