‘It should have been safe’: twin of woman found under coat in A&E says death avoidable

Inga Rublite died after being found unconscious under her coat in an A&E waiting room more than eight hours after arriving.

Learning what happened to Rublite in the hours before her death has been gut-wrenching for her friends and family. She sat through the night at Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham after arriving at 10.30pm on 19 January with severe headache, dizziness, high blood pressure and vomiting. When her name was called seven hours later, at about 5.30am, she did not respond and staff discharged her believing she had tired of waiting and gone home.

But over an hour later she was discovered having a seizure after falling asleep, and then unconscious, under her coat. She was rushed to intensive care but had suffered a brain haemorrhage, and the bleeding was so severe it was inoperable. She was declared dead two days later on 22 January, when her life support was switched off.

Inga's twin sister said, “In all those years, the one time she went to the hospital to ask for help, no one was looking at her. I can’t describe how that feels. That you can’t get help in the place where you’re supposed to go for help.”

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Source: Guardian, 26 April 2024