North East Woman Was Left Unresponsive And Suffering From Numerous Injuries

A mother-of-two needed emergency surgery when she developed life threatening sepsis just days after being discharged home from hospital. Sara Bell, 31 from Durham, is calling for more awareness of the importance of assessing early signs of infection after instructing specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate the care she received.

Sara underwent surgery to remove her gallbladder in September 2015. The operation was carried out at University Hospital of North Durham (UHND) and was noted to have been difficult but without complications. Although she felt very unwell the day after the procedure, she was discharged home without observations being taken to ensure that her discharge was safe.

Over the next few days, Sara’s condition continued to deteriorate despite her family calling the GP out to see her. The first time the GP visited Sara, she noted that Sara’s urine was dark and diagnosed her as dehydrated. Four days after her operation Sara’s condition had become so bad that when the GP was called out again, Sara was starting to become unresponsive.

After being taken to hospital by emergency ambulance, Sara underwent a CT scan and emergency surgery, where a large quantity of pus and bile were removed from her abdomen. It was only at this point that Sara was found to have severe sepsis, as well as a bile leak, multiple abdominal abscesses and spilt gallstones.

Sara instructed expert medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate concerns that she had not received the appropriate care from the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and the Claypath Medical Centre.

When Sara was seen by her GP in the days after her initial surgery, there is no record of any observations having been taken.

Sara said: “I am still trying to come to terms with what happened to me and how ill I became. Numerous medical staff that I’ve seen have told me how lucky I am to still be alive.

“I always find that hard to swallow because if my symptoms had been noted earlier and acted on, I might not have become so seriously ill.”

Sadly Sara’s tragic story continued following her surgery. The days after her operation saw Sara staying in UNHD as she continued to suffer with pain. On 1 October, she was transferred to Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. Here, Sara underwent further tests and it was found that Sara had a hole in her duodenum, the first part of the small intestine.

Overall, Sara stayed in the Freeman Hospital for a month before finally being discharged. However, she was in and out of hospital for treatments and procedures over the coming months.

At home, on 13 November, Sara noticed her eyes had turned yellow and contacted the Freeman Hospital and was told to attend immediately. She underwent a MRCP, a type of MRI scan, which identified a significant 30ml stricture to the common bile duct. A stent was fitted to open the stricture, however, stents of this nature only have a four months lifespan, so eventually she required major surgery at Freeman Hospital to correct this.

Unfortunately, two days after the operation, she used her patient controlled analgesia and due to a fault in the equipment it administered a bolus of fentanyl, which was sufficient to put her in respiratory arrest. She was resuscitated and spent two days on ITU recovering.

Michelle Armstrong, the medical negligence specialist at Irwin Mitchell representing Sara said: