The widow of Status Quo‘s Rick Parfitt claims ”medical negligence” played a part in his death.
The veteran rocker died on Christmas Eve last year at the age of 68, passing away from a “severe infection”, after being admitted to hospital with a shoulder injury.
His wife Lyndsay believes Parfitt was possibly ”misdiagnosed” by doctors. She told Lorraine: ”It was just unbelievable – and such a futile way to die really. He was a lion, a monster of a man really, survived all sorts of health scares. I think we all felt that he’d always come through.
”Obviously this was just one too many things. I feel at the end he was misdiagnosed. It think there was a bit of medical negligence.”
She added: ”I sometimes beat myself up, I think everybody does when they’ve lost somebody, you say ‘what if I’d done this?’ or ‘we should have done this earlier’ or whatever.
”Then you start to take on the guilt yourself and say ‘why didn’t I take him here and do that?’ To die as a victim of a form of sepsis feels very cruel.”
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Parfitt played with Status Quo for over fifty years until October 2016 when he decided to leave after a run of ill health. After recovering from a triple heart bypass in 1997, the decision to stop performing with his bandmate of five decades Francis Rossi, was made after he suffered a further heart attack in the summer of 2016.
Status Quo released over 100 singles – many of which were penned by Parfitt – and sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Their biggest hits were ‘Down, Down,’ ‘Whatever You Want’ and ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’.
Lyndsay Parfitt added: ”It’s left a huge hole in my life and the children’s life and all the fans’ world as well. He really was such a personality.
”I have moments, a lot of moments, when I’m really struggling. I really miss him. I sort of wake up at night and think this hasn’t really happened. It’s like a nightmare, it’s not real.”