A nursing student reportedly died from sepsis in 2022 after she had been feeling run down after a long weekend of shifts and was forced to wait in the emergency room for 12 hours. Zoe Bell, 28, had reportedly been taking on several extra shifts at the hospitals in London when she began to feel sick.
According to A Corner, Bell had just finished a 12-hour shift on December 18, when she began to suffer a sore throat and struggled to get words out. Bell's boyfriend, Phillip Ayres, told the panel currently investigating her death that "It was not uncommon for her to be run down after a weekend of long shifts ." However, Bell's condition continued to deteriorate and was eventually rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital — one of the many hospitals where she worked — on December 23.
Ayres told the panel that he and Bell arrived at the hospital around 10pm and that she began suffering from severe chest pain almost a half hour later. The man continued by saying that a nurse who checked in on Bell assured the worried couple everything looked normal to her and then tried to test for tonsillitis.
"It was made to seem as though there was nothing to worry about," Ayres told the Beaconsfield Coroner's Court on Tuesday per The Daily Mail. According to the hospital, the entire staff had been busy because several patients had arrived with bouts of flu, COVID along with several cases of Strep-B. Around 4:30am, Bell was still waiting to be seen and had developed an "agonizing" chest, back and shoulder pain.
"Zoe coughed up a small amount of blood in a sick bowl," Ayres told the board. "A nurse took all the same tests again. The nurse was convinced the blood was caused by Zoe's constant coughing." The man added: "Because Zoe was a nurse and she understood the staff were overwhelmed, I felt I had to be polite. It was like being caught between a rock and a hard place. I did not want to upset Zoe."
However, after another hour of not being seen, Ayres said that he "kicked up a fuss" and demanded that Bell be seen by a doctor. When they finally got their turn, the doctor stated that Bell was probably suffering from laryngitis. After being escorted back to the waiting area, the woman went into a panic about the coughed-up blood and allegedly started hyperventilating.
"By this point Zoe had enough," Ayres 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, on Christmas Eve, Bell was finally seen, however, she soon became distressed, confused and disorientated necessitating the emergency alarm to be pulled.
"There was a sense of relief she was finally being seen and treated," her boyfriend said. "She was so relieved to be finally getting help, she was so thankful and grateful." Despite finally getting the medical attention she needed, Bell continued to deteriorate and father, Nick, arrived at the hospital just in time to see his daughter being rushed into the ICU. Bell died later that evening after her heart failed.
An examination conducted on Bell after her death revealed that she had died of staphylococcal septicemia, bronchopneumonia. Ayres told the board that Bell always understood the strains that were put on the NHS and hoped to improve things one day. "It seems that the very thing she worked so hard towards was the very thing that let her down," Ayres said. "Her death is a loss to the NHS for her kindness and compassion and sheer determination."
Shortly after her death, an investigation uncovered concerns about the reliability of the examination Bell was given as a chest x-ray would have revealed the abnormality almost immediately. "I think we are getting close to the tipping point of survivability at around 1 or 2am in the morning," said Dr James Bromilow, an intensive care specialist who investigated Bell's death. "I believe that the lack of appropriate antimicrobial therapy for 10 hours made a more than negligible contribution to death."
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