'Neglect' contributed to death of young woman from Cornwall from sepsis
20-year-old Chloe Rideout from Coverack lost her life after being wrongly discharged from Derriford Hospital following an operation
Last updated 15th May 2021
A coroner has found that neglect in the care of a young woman from Cornwall, who died from sepsis, contributed to her death.
20-year-old Chloe Rideout from Coverack was admitted to Derriford Hospital in October 2018 after suffering acute abdominal pain.
She underwent a routine operation to remove her appendix but, despite a slow post-operative recovery, was discharged,
An inquest heard that blood test results had not been reviewed by a senior doctor and Chloe was not given the medication she needed to take home.
When she arrived home she was still in pain and, after he mum called 999, was taken to Treliske.
However her condition deteriorated and, just a week after being discharged from Derriford, Chloe suffered multiple organ failure brought on by sepsis.
Medical experts gave evidence at a three-day inquest in Truro, which concluded on Friday 14th May.
The coroner agreed that Chloe was wrongly discharged from Derriford Hospital, describing the discharge as "manifestly inappropriate".
Coroner Andrew Cox said: "I'm going to return a narrative conclusion that Chloe died from a known complication, sepsis, of a necessary surgical procedure, appendicectomy, to which neglect contributed".
In a statement given to ITV News Westcountry, Chloe's family said: "We as a family cannot believe that so many professionals did not spot any signs of sepsis and we feel so many people have let Chloe down.
"Chloe was a young lady with her life ahead of her and it has been ripped away from her. We want to make sure any failures from the health care providers are fully investigated and we want to prevent this happening to anyone else".
Since his daughter's tragic death, dad Dave has raised over £70,000 forThe UK Sepsis Trust.
Dave is determined to keep fundraising in his daughter's memory and to prevent other families from suffering.
"My daughter went in hospital for an appendix operation and ended up dying from Sepsis. As you can imagine, we are totally heartbroken and struggling to understand why this has happened. We didn't know what Sepsis was and if we did Chloe would still be alive.
"Chloe was only 20! She was lovely and only ever thought of others. Please give generously so we can raise money for The Sepsis Trust so no other innocent person dies.
"The Sepsis Trust visits schools, doctors and hospitals to educate and raise awareness of this problem so hopefully another young person doesn't lose their life and another family doesn't have to live the nightmare we are going through".
Dave Rideout, Just Giving
You can read more about the fundraising campaign and find out how to donate here.
Plymouth University Hospitals' NHS Trust has issued a public apology to Chloe's family, saying that had opportunites not been missed in the continuity of Chloe.s care, the outcome would probably have been different.
"Following my apology to the family during the inquest, I would like to publicly express our sincere and heartfelt apologies to Chloe’s family, on behalf of myself and the Trust for the opportunities that were missed that led to loss of continuity of care for Chloe. Opportunities, which had they been taken, would probably have resulted in a different outcome. At University Hospitals Plymouth we aim to give patients the highest possible standard of care and we didn’t achieve that for Chloe. We are extremely sorry for this and for the loss that Chloe’s family have endured as a consequence.
"There is nothing we can say that will change the fact that Chloe was discharged when she shouldn’t have been, and I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Chloe’s family to relive what happened during that time. But we can, and have learned from this and are committed to doing everything we can to try to prevent an inappropriate discharge happening in the same way again. We carried out a full investigation and we have shared the outcome of this with Chloe’s family. A number of practices have changed since 2018.
"We have:
Shared with our medical teams the learning that discharging teams need to ensure the results of all investigations and tests have been reviewed prior to a patient leaving
Introduced electronic prescribing to reduce the risk of incorrect prescriptions for take-away medications__
Introduced a seven-day pharmacy service to ensure that all prescriptions to take away are dispensed by pharmacy
"We are also in the process of introducing a new £4 million digital safety package that we hope will transform how seriously ill patients are managed within the hospital. This will go live later in the year as part of our drive to digital transformation and safer systems that support care".
Paul McArdle, Deputy Medical Director