Two retired policeman with same name ended up side by side in hospital

Authored by telegraph.co.uk and submitted by suzannahdean19

The more senior Mr Woolford is a past president of the Conservative Club in his hometown of Llandudno.

Meanwhile, his namesake is the current vice-chairman of the Conservative Club 34 miles away in the town of Ruthin.

The pair had never met before and after checking back in their family trees found they were not related.

Checks with the public records office showed they are the only two people in Britain called Geraint Woolford.

Having two patients on the same ward with the same name caused a headache for staff who had to make sure they were dealing with the right one.

The younger Mr Woolford, who was in hospital for a partial knee replacement op, said: "They had to double check and triple check everything. But we've both definitely had the right operations.

"It was just uncanny that we ended up in the neighbouring beds. I think the hospital would have been glad to see the back of us. It was a nightmare for them."

The older Mr Woolford, who underwent a hip replacement operation, had arrived on the hospital ward first.

"They came to me and said that there was another Geraint Woolford coming in," he said. "I said: "Don't be silly - there is only me here. There cannot be two of us. We had a lot of fun in hospital. Every time the staff came to me I said: "Are you sure that's for me, are you sure you've got the right one."

A hospital spokesman said: "It was an amazing coincidence - the chances of the only two Geraint Woolfords being admitted at the same time must be millions to one."

JayGold on June 22nd, 2019 at 22:03 UTC »

"Hi, my name's Geraint Woolford, I'm a retired policeman, how about you?"

"Hi, my name's Geraint Woolford, I'm a retired policeman."

This guy is completely insane

grinch1225 on June 22nd, 2019 at 21:50 UTC »

Willing to bet they were probably the only two people in the world named “Geraint Woolford”

mnlaker on June 22nd, 2019 at 21:38 UTC »

Well, that’s a patient safety issue