Nadia Wearn, 31, ‘could have been saved if doctors examined her properly’

  • Dance teacher Nadia Wearn collapsed within three hours of being sent home from hospital, inquest heard
  • Medics advised her to take painkillers, coroner told

By
Rob Preece

10:31 EST, 22 May 2012

|

11:38 EST, 22 May 2012

A dance teacher who collapsed and died only hours after being sent home from hospital might have been saved if doctors had tested her more thoroughly, an inquest has heard.

Nadia Wearn, 31, had been to hospital to complain of pains down her left arm, chest and back, but was advised they were probably due to how she held her baby daughter, the hearing was told.

She was told to take painkillers but, less than three hours later, she collapsed at her home in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, in front of her mother.

Nadia Wearn, pictured with her husband Jason, died only hours after visiting South Tyneside District Hospital complaining of pains down her left arm and in her chest, the inquest heard

Advised to take painkillers : Nadia Wearn, pictured with husband Jason, died only hours after visiting hospital

The inquest, held at South Shields Register Office, heard that Mrs Wearn visited South Tyneside District Hospital on June 1 last year.

She was sent away after being told the pains were down to the way she was holding her 13-week-old daughter Ava.

Mrs Wearn’s mum Pauline, who has 40 years’ nursing experience, broke down in tears at the inquest as she described how her daughter collapsed.

‘Nadia was sitting on the sofa and then she just leaned forward and said “faint”,’ she said.

‘I told her to sit back and I shouted to (Mrs Wearn’s husband) Jason to get the baby and told him to call an ambulance.

‘I pulled her on to the floor. There was no pulse. I started CPR, but there was just nothing.

‘The ambulance seemed to take ages to arrive. Her lips were blue, I just held her on the floor, kept doing CPR.

Tragedy: The dance teacher was told her pains were probably due to how she held her baby daughter

Tragedy: The dance teacher was told her pains were probably due to how she held her baby daughter

‘I checked her pulse and there was nothing. She had gone.’

Home Office pathologist Stuart Hamilton, who conducted a post-mortem on Mrs Wearn’s body, found the cause of death to be ‘unascertained’.

Coroner Terence Carney was told that Mrs Wearn had been assessed as a minor injury patient, and no Electrocardiography (ECG) or blood tests had been carried out to try to find out the cause of her pain.

When asked why, Dr Soni Shrestha, who examined Mrs Wearn, replied: ‘All her findings were normal.’

The doctor added: ‘There was no indication for blood tests so I did not feel I had to do the blood tests.

‘If she had been presenting cardiac symptoms like a crushing chest pain and pain to her left side, if she was a heavy drinker or smoker, then I would have had a think about it.

‘She did not appear anxious, not to me. All her vitals were fine.’

Dr Shrestha told the inquest that she had told Mrs Wearn that if the symptoms worsened to come back to accident and emergency.

Dr Peter Goode, a specialist consultant at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, said that in his opinion Mrs Wearn ‘should have’ had an ECG and blood tests.

He added: ‘The question remains for me whether first of all should there have been a different course of action and, if a different course of action had been followed, could this have reduced or prevented her death?

‘She should have had a chest x-ray, an ECG and blood tests.

‘If those investigations had been done, could this have presented this lady’s death or reduced the risk?

‘If they had been abnormal in some way, she would have been admitted to hospital.

‘The difficulty we have is we don’t have a subsequent diagnosis from the post-mortem.’

South Tyneside District Hospital

Coroner Terence Carney heard that Mrs Wearn was assessed as a minor injury patient at the hospital

Dr Goode said that, had the cause of the collapse been due to a blood clot, the outcome would have been the same.

But he added: ‘If it was a sudden cardiac change, the chances of survival would have been better in hospital.’

The inquest heard that Mrs Wearn, who had suffered from a hereditary blood disorder, was readmitted to hospital.

Medics tried to save her by giving her thrombolysis treatment, but she was pronounced dead an hour later.

The inquest continues.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

The British National Health System…..the pattern for Obamacare……any more questions?

The British National Health System…..the pattern for Obamacare……any more questions?

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes