Girl, 18, died a week after a hospital scan failed to pick up signs of deep vein thrombosis - even though her left calf was 3CM bigger than her right

Laura Pincher went to her GP after noticing her legs were different sizes

Was referred to the local hospital for a scan by her worried GP

Scans failed to reveal anything and was assumed she had injury from a fall

Suffer ed a cardiac arrest days later and died after the clots were missed

Inquest heard she had 'massive' blood clots on her lungs



Coroner recorded verdict of death by natural causes



An 18-year-old girl died just a week after a hospital scan failed to pick up signs of deep vein thrombosis.



Laura Pincher suffered a cardiac arrest after a hospital missed the blood clots in a scan recommended by her worried GP.



The teenager from Stourbridge, in the West Midlands, collapsed at her home on October 28 last year and was pronounced dead within an hour at Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley.

Missed chances: Laura Pincher suffered a cardiac arrest after a scan failed to detect 'massive' blood clots

An inquest heard that the student had been to see her GP, Dr Debbie Foulds, seven days before her death after noticing that her left calf was 3cm bigger than her right.



Dr Foulds sent Miss Pincher for an urgent assessment at the hospital, setting off a chain of events that culminated in the tragedy.

Dr Jonathan Tatton, a fellow GP at the practice, said: 'One of the things we would be thinking of was DVT - deep vein thrombosis.



'It’s a GP’s role to highlight the risk. As soon as you’ve highlighted the risk it needs to be assessed in a properly set-up clinic.



Worried: Miss Pincher had been to see her GP after noticing her left calf was 3cm bigger than her right

Dr Anthony D’Sa, a doctor at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, who specialises in radiology, said a Doppler ultrasound scan carried out the next day had not detected blood clots.



But he admitted: 'I don’t think there’s any test that’s 100 per cent successful in picking up symptoms.'



He told coroner Angus Smillie, sitting at Dudley Coroner’s Court: 'At any stage it’s a matter of putting together how the patient presents and the blood tests and examination.



'We had enough information at that stage to say that there wasn’t a thrombus [blood clot] within the legs.'

At a follow-up visit with Dr Tatton on October 23, Miss Pincher and the GP accepted the findings of the scan, concluding the pain in her leg must have been caused in a recent accident when she had tripped on some wood.



But just five days later, on the morning of her death , Miss Pincher visited a Walk-In Centre in Dudley.

She complained of worsening shortness of breath and a chesty cough - but was sent home with antibiotics and a new inhaler to combat her asthma.



Pathologist Dr Swapna Ghosh said Miss Pincher had died of 'massive' blood clots in both lungs, giving deep vein thrombosis and morbid obesity as underlying factors.



Mr Smillie ruled death was due to natural causes, declaring that the scan had been concluded satisfactorily.



But Miss Pincher's mother Jane said afterwards: 'How can they say an 18-year-old girl has died of natural causes when there’s a blood clot in her lungs? That’s not natural.'

Commenting on the inquest, Paula Clarke, chief executive of the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'We would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of Laura Pincher for their tragic loss.

' We acknowledge the coroner’s verdict that, sadly, Laura died from natural causes.'

