Nurse, 28, died of sepsis after 12-hour A&E wait at own hospital

A student nurse died of sepsis on Christmas Eve after being left waiting in A&E for almost 12 hours at the hospital where she worked.

Zoe Bell,28, had finished a weekend of long shifts before she arrived at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire with breathing difficulties.

Ms Bell, from High Wycombe, had been taking on extra shifts at hospitals in Buckinghamshire across the country to help finance the last stage of her studies, a coroner was told.

The dedicated student, who finished her last 12-hour shift on Sunday, December 18, 2022, began to suffer with a sore throat and struggled to get words out.

Her boyfriend, Phillip Ayres, told an inquest into her death that “it was not uncommon for her to be run down after a weekend of long shifts”.

But she continued to deteriorate and was rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital, one of the hospitals where she worked, on December 23, 2022.

Mr Ayres recalled how they had arrived shortly after 10pm and said she began suffering severe chest pain about an hour and a half later.

Nurses checked Ms Bell while she was at the hospital but said her oxygen levels were normal and tried to test for tonsillitis.

“It was made to seem as though there was nothing to worry about”, said Mr Ayres.

The inquest heard how A&E had been particularly busy at the time due to a lot of flu, Covid and also children coming in with Strep-B.

By 4.30am Ms Bell and Mr Ayres were still in the waiting area but she developed “agonising” chest, back and shoulder pain, he said.

“Zoe coughed up a small amount of blood in a sick bowl,” Mr Ayres said.

“A nurse took all the same tests again. The nurse was convinced the blood was caused by Zoe’s constant coughing.”

Between 4 and 5am a nurse ensured Ms Bell was seen by a doctor. But the doctor suspected she had laryngitis, the inquest heard.

“Zoe was panicked about having coughed up blood’ and started hyperventilating, Mr Ayres said.

“By this point Zoe had enough”, he said. “She had got to a point where she wanted to go home. She was exhausted. She felt like there was no help coming.”

Finally, at 10am on Christmas Eve, Ms Bell was taken into a part of A&E where patients are checked for the ward.

Ms Bell became distressed, confused and disorientated and an emergency alarm was pulled.

Mr Bell told how she momentarily “perked up a bit” With there being !a sense of relief she was finally being seen and treated.

“She was so relieved to be finally getting help, she was so thankful and grateful.”

However, the 28-year-old continued to deteriorate and her father, Nick Bell, arrived at hospital just in time to see her being rushed into ICU at 12.30pm, the inquest heard.

She died the same evening from heart failure.

A post-mortem examination concluded Ms Bell, of High Wycombe, had died of staphylococcal septicaemia, bronchopneumonia, an acute lung injury due to influenza and a viral infection.

Giving evidence to the coroner, a medical expert said a 10-hour delay in giving Ms Bell antibiotics contributed to her death.

Dr James Bromilow, an intensive care specialist, said: “I think we are getting close to the tipping point of survivability at around 1 or 2am in the morning.

“I believe that the lack of appropriate antimicrobial therapy for 10 hours made a more than negligible contribution to death.”

Dr Bromilow said it was ‘unlikely’ that Ms Bell’s chest would have sounded normal when a doctor checked her chest at 7am and 7.30am.

The inquest continues.