Coroner slams hospital over death of student

FAMILY OF TRAGIC 20-YEAR-OLD WAS NOT GIVEN 'CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS' ON OP COMPLICATION

- CHRIS SLATER

A STUDENT who underwent back surgery died in his mother's arms after being allowed home without 'clear instructions' on a life-threatening complication, an inquest heard.

A coroner has now slammed the hospital for not following discharge procedure which she said increased the risk of Rhys Hill developing the blood clot that killed him.

Rhys, 20, from Stockport, underwent a procedure to release pressure on spinal nerves at the Royal Hospital in Preston, where he was at university, on January 27 last year.

Three days later he returned home to Cheadle Hulme to recover.

Ten days later, on February 9, he rang his mother from upstairs to tell her he was struggling to breathe.

She rushed up to him but found he had stopped breathing. She began CPR as paramedics rushed to the property on Vernon Close.

He could not be saved.

An inquest into his death at South Manchester Coroner's Court in Stockport heard that early on January 30, the day he was discharged from Royal Hospital Preston, he was offered an injection of the anti-coagulant drug, Dalteparin, used to help prevent Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) - a blood clot that forms in a vein, but that he refused it.