Woman tells of anguish at sister's hospital death

Marina Young had been managing her conditions well, her family said

A woman whose disabled sister spent 39 hours in A&E before she died has told an inquest her "world fell apart" when she found she did not get the treatment she needed.

Marina Young, 46, had spina bifida, a spinal complication, and was taken to the Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire after suffering a severe asthma attack.

An internal investigation by the hospital identified various failures in her treatment but her family hopes the inquest will confirm whether mistakes contributed to her death.

Her sister Michelle Young told the inquest her sister's asthma was under control, she was independent, managed her own care needs and enjoyed life and socialising.

Marina could walk up to 200m, had modified her car to get around and also used a mobility scooter, the hearing was told.

Her sister said that shortly before her death, Marina had been well enough to drive her late father, who had cancer, for chemotherapy treatment.

On 20 June 2022, Marina had driven herself the short distance to her sister's house, at 19:00 BST.

Michelle found Marina was very short of breath and having an asthma attack, so drover her to hospital.

She told medical staff her sister's medical history, including her continence needs and her reliance on catheters.

Marina Young, 46, died at the Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire

Michelle was unable to stay at the hospital due to the Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time but she was in regular contact with her via text message, the inquest heard.

On the evening of 21 June, Marina texted Michelle to say she might need to be moved to intensive care.

The next morning, Michelle returned to the A&E department to drop items off for Marina only to be told that she had died.

"I cuddled her and cuddled her," Michelle said, adding: "I still can't believe that she was gone and what happened to her. She was fully clothed with shoes on."

She told the inquest at Preston County Hall her sister never wore shoes because of her pain.

She continued: "She had been here for two days. My world fell apart. I could not comprehend. I could smell urine. It was so strong it was awful."

A copy of the internal investigation seen by the BBC found there had been an under-appreciation of Marina’s deteriorating clinical condition and there were "missed opportunities" to increase her care.

A referral was also not made to either a senior member of the medical team or the critical care team for advice or support.

The factors stated included the inexperience of the reviewing doctors from the on-call medical team, the increased workload on nursing and medical teams and the busy A&E department.

The inquest is being held at Preston County Hall

It concluded that if Marina's acute asthma attack had been treated adequately and was escalated earlier to the critical care and respiratory teams for support, she was unlikely to have gone into cardiac arrest.

But the review could not be certain if she could have survived if those mistakes had not been made because of the severity of the asthma attack.

The inquest heard evidence from three nurses including Aisha Younas, who used a peak flow meter to measure breathing and wanted a doctor to carry out a review.

She told the inquest: "My concern was that she was wheezy and needed medication for it."

The inquest was told her peak flow meter readings were at dangerously low levels.

Dr Pratiksha Srinivas was asked to assess Marina at 03:00 BST on 22 June after another nurse was concerned about the patient's posture and shortness of breath.

Dr Srivinas told the inquest Marina seemed no different from when she was first admitted.

However, she later admitted she did not look at the patient's nursing records or the results of the peak flow meter that she had previously asked to be carried out on 21 June.

The inquest continues.