Final battle for new life undermined from within
MATTHEW Millington's father Lester knows why his son opted for treatment in Cambridge.
"He went there because he said 'What is the best?' and the experts said Papworth, so he said 'Then I'll go there'," the 64-year-old IT worker said.
"We have absolutely nothing against them at all. It is a brilliant place and they are so friendly."
Mr Millington joined the Army on his 16th birthday and rose to become a corporal in what was later to become the Queen's Royal Lancers.
He served as a tank crewman in Cyprus, Germany and Bosnia among other countries.
After leaving the Army in 2001, he was employed in a number of jobs, including installation engineer, factory worker and builder's labourer, before being recalled in October 2005.
It was while serving in Iraq in that he began to struggle with his breathing and the first signs of serious illness emerged.
Mr Millington, who had smoked in the past, had difficulty while running but initially put it down to a lack of fitness and took on extra training.
But a medical officer noticed him training and said the problem was medical rather than physical and referred him to a field hospital.
Mr Millington was sent back to Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital in January 2006 before being moved to the city's Queen Elizabeth hospital.
It was initially believed he had pulmonary hypertension – in which the supply of blood to the lungs is limited by the stiffening of arteries.
But he was then diagnosed with the rarer pulmonary capillary hemangiomatosis.
Mum Maureen, aged 61 and retired, said: "If he hadn't been in the Army the doctors would never have known he had it because it is so hard to diagnose."
It was decided that Mr Millington needed a double lung transplant and he was placed on a waiting list.
Without treatment, his life expectancy was estimated at about two years.
The call that a donor had become available came through on Good Friday 2007.
Mr Millington's family raced from their home in Gladstone Grove, Biddulph, to meet him in Stafford and travel down to Cambridgeshire.
The operation went smoothly with Mr Millington being supported by girlfriend Siobhan and brothers Daren, aged 40, a fleet controller form London, and Christopher, a 35-year-old IT worker from Biddulph.
But Mr Millington then had to go back into surgery three times in nine days as post-op problems with infection and stitching emerged.
Siobhan, who he later married, a solicitor's practice manager, told the inquest: "He came through the first one extremely well and when he woke up he said he wanted a full English breakfast. But after the third one he was in a state and in pain."
Mr Millington was allowed to return to the home in Gardeners Close, Brown Lees, he had taken to be independent but close to his family, but was in and out of the hospital as his condition deteriorated.
His wife added: "He said from the moment he woke up other patients had told him he would be able to take a deep breath and be able to breathe, but he said his lungs felt like two deflated balloons."
In October 2007, six months after the transplant, the family was told something had been detected in the lung and a biopsy of a lymph node discovered cancer secondary to that in the lung.
Mrs Millington said: "All Matthew wanted was another set of lungs.
"He said 'They have given me a dud pair, get me another set'. "He thought he could beat it, but his condition deteriorated so fast from then."
Despite between 10 and 12 sessions of radiotherapy, Mr Millington died at home at 7.50am on February 8, 2008 with his family around him.
His funeral at St Lawrence's Church, Biddulph, on February 23, 2008 attracted hundreds of friends and loved ones.
The hospital has since re-checked early X-rays but can still detect no trace of abnormality in the donated lungs.
But the deceased's father said: "I have never even contemplated taking further action. I wanted to get to the inquest but I was 99.9 per cent certain that nothing they had done wrong was done wrong willfully."
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