Neglect contributed to the death of a mother-of-two who died after New Cross Hospital staff failed to detect a blood clot, an inquest heard.
Marie Rollason might have survived if the clot had been detected earlier, the hearing was told. Mrs Rollason visited the hospital’s A&E department twice in the weeks before her death on December 29 last year. The 43-year-old had been suffering from collapses, but these were attributed to a head injury sustained after she tripped and fell in the bathroom of her Wolverhampton home earlier that month.
Giving evidence at the inquest, consultant Rakesh Khanna said abnormalities in the results of an ECG test were a ‘potential red-flag’ – but the junior doctor who assessed Mrs Rollason decided she could be discharged without further investigations following discussions with a locum consultant. Dr Khanna added had the clot been treated following the test performed six days before Mrs Rollason’s death, she ‘more likely than not’ would have survived. But he also explained she had not displayed the predominant symptoms classically linked to a pulmonary embolism.
Coroner Zafar Siddique concluded: “On the balance of probabilities, had further tests been ordered and Mrs Rollason had been kept under observation, a basic medical procedure would have detected the pulmonary embolism and more likely than not she would have survived.
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Marie on holiday in Bulgaria
Filed under: NHS Blunders, Medical Neglect
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