A third doctor connected with an operation where a pensioner's only healthy kidney was removed in error has been suspended.

It follows the suspensions of Registrar M C Gowel and consultant John Roberts, who have been suspended on full pay.

A spokesman for the Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli, confirmed that the Adhanareswaran Umashanka - a senior house officer - has been off duty since the operation and has now been formally suspended.

The spokesman said this was a standard procedure while investigations are ongoing.

Graham Reeves, 69, from Burry Port, had undergone surgery at the hospital just under three weeks ago to remove a diseased kidney, but the healthy kidney was removed instead.

His critical condition - which had deteriorated - is now reported to be stable.

Mr Reeves has never regained consciousness and remains in a coma on a life support machine, having been transferred to Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

An inquiry announced by the Royal College of Surgeons is currently underway to determine exactly what went wrong during Mr Reeves' s operation.

It is being headed by two senior urologists.

Surgeons Fletcher Deane, president of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, and Keith Parsons, chief executive of the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, have already met with senior managers of the Carmarthenshire NHS Trust.

The Llanelli medical team involved in the operation has been suspended from carrying out similar surgery until the results of the inquiry are known.

Second blow

Mr Reeves's family has been dealt another blow with the death of his cousin Gillian Hammond.

Widow Mrs Hammond was found dead at her home on the Waun-Sidan old people's complex, Pembrey, Llanelli, where she was the warden.

She had been admitted to hospital with heart problems a few days earlier but released after treatment.