stuart bartlett death lanzarote patricia prevention campaign

Husband who saved wife dies months later

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

First it was him who refused to give up when she was gravely ill. Months later, the roles were reversed in the cruellest way imaginable. Patricia Bartlett was in hospital in Gran Canaria recovering from an operation when she received a call from Lanzarote. On the other end of the line, she was told that her husband, Stuart, had collapsed while working and that paramedics were trying to resuscitate him.

According to Patricia, speaking in an interview published by The Sun, all she could do was stay on the phone and listen for around 45 minutes to the attempts to save the man who, months earlier, had insisted on taking her to hospital when her condition deteriorated. That decision, she says, ultimately proved key to saving her life.

A life-saving decision

Patricia told The Sun that in May 2024 she began suffering severe abdominal pain and nausea while working in Lanzarote. Her condition worsened despite receiving medical attention, and after several days of barely being able to eat or recover, Stuart decided to take her to a private hospital. “I’m not going to let my wife go on suffering like this,” Patricia recalls him saying. There, doctors discovered she had a perforated intestine.

According to Patricia’s account, a doctor told Stuart: “If you hadn’t brought her in, I don’t think she would have survived the next 24 hours.” Patricia had to undergo emergency surgery and was fitted with a colostomy bag. She told the British newspaper that the emotional impact was enormous, and that she even told Stuart he could leave her. His response was immediate: “You’re my wife. And you’re beautiful.”

After six days in intensive care, Patricia was able to return home and continue her recovery. Months later, she decided to undergo another procedure, this time in Gran Canaria, to have the bag removed.

A fatal collapse

The operation took place in March 2025 and lasted around five hours. When Patricia woke up, Stuart was by her side, but he had to return quickly to Lanzarote to look after the couple’s business interests. Before leaving, he kissed her on the forehead. The following morning, Patricia found a message from him on her phone: “You’re brave and strong, and I’m proud of you.” She tried calling him several times, but got no answer.

Hours later, she received a call from one of his clients: Stuart had collapsed while making deliveries and paramedics were trying to resuscitate him. Patricia was still in hospital and could not travel to Lanzarote. “All I could do was stay and listen to the commotion in the background,” she explained to The Sun.

Paramedics tried to revive Stuart for around 45 minutes, but eventually had to stop their efforts. He was 44 years old. The post-mortem later determined that he had suffered a cardiac arrest linked to ischaemic heart disease with cardiac hypertrophy, according to the testimony published by the British newspaper. Ten days later, Stuart was laid to rest in Lanzarote.

A legacy of prevention

Patricia has decided to channel part of her grief into a prevention initiative. She has launched Stuart’s Prevention Plan, a campaign to raise funds to buy defibrillators and provide training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. “I can’t bring Stuart back, but I can help others so they don’t have to suffer the pain and sadness I live with every day,” she explains.

The story, told by Patricia to The Sun, leaves a paradox difficult to forget: the man who got her to hospital in time ended up dying months later while his wife, from another island, could only listen over the phone as others tried to save him.

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