Inga Rublite inquest: hospital missed two chances to treat woman dying in A&E

Staff at a hospital in Nottingham missed two opportunities to treat a woman found dying under a coat in a crowded emergency department, a coroner has concluded.

An inquest into the death of Inga Rublite, 39, found she died of natural causes but medical staff failed to recognise “persistent and escalating symptoms of brain haemorrhage” as she waited in A&E for more than eight hours.

Dr Elizabeth Didcock, an assistant coroner for Nottinghamshire, said Rublite should have been assessed by a senior doctor and sent for a head scan when she arrived at Queens medical centre (QMC) just after 10.30pm on 19 January this year.

When Rublite was next assessed by a nurse, at about 2am, and reported to be in severe pain, this should have been escalated to a doctor, she said.

“[Rublite] had persistent and escalating symptoms of brain haemorrhage that were not recognised,” said Didcock, adding that the department was “excessively busy” that night. “There were 76 patients waiting to be seen, and reduced medical staff generally across the department.”

Didock concluded Rublite suffered a second severe bleed on the brain shortly before she was found, which caused her death. “If she had been admitted for close monitoring, as she should have been, she would still have had [a] second rapid and devastating bleed.”

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Source: The Guardian, 25 July 2024