Ana Uglow: Teenage sepsis victim was 'clearly very unwell'

A teenager who died from sepsis on a school trip was "clearly very unwell" shortly before she collapsed, her friend told an inquest.

Ana Uglow, 17, a Bristol Grammar School student, collapsed in her hotel room in 2019 during a school trip to America.

Miss Uglow told friends Katie Meredith and Jenny Burgess "I can't feel anything" before she collapsed.

Avon Coroner's Court previously heard teacher Rory Hambly say Ana was "lucid" when he went to the room.

But Miss Uglow's friends described her as "very pale" when they fetched her teachers and told how she asked Mr Hambly: "Why is this happening to me?".

Miss Meredith said: "Sometimes when we were asking questions that morning she would not answer them too quickly and was clearly very unwell."

A report by the chief medical examiner of the city of New York concluded that Miss Uglow, of Redland, Bristol, died from bronchopneumonia and sepsis, complicating an influenza upper respiratory infection.

Parents David and Natalia Uglow claim their daughter told teachers she may have had a chest infection and asked to see a doctor two days before her death, but this was "refused".

However, Mr Hambly and teacher Ellice Clare have insisted that she only complained of feeling tired and having a blocked nose, and did not directly ask to see a doctor.

Miss Uglow was off school with cold-like symptoms for two days before the trip but felt better and set off to Washington from Bristol with eight other pupils, Mr Hambly and Mrs Clare on December 14.

In statements read to the inquest, Miss Burgess said Miss Uglow had been tired on the trip and on one occasion was seen coughing and retching into a bin at the Empire State Building in New York.

Miss Meredith and Miss Burgess, who were sharing a room with her, awoke at about 07:30 BST on December 19 to find she had suffered a nose bleed.

"Ana's breath was very hard and gaspy," Miss Burgess said.

"She was very pale and her eyes were bulging. There was blood on the bed.

"Ana didn't seem like herself and I was scared."

A short time later when her teachers arrived, Mr Hambly called the emergency service and performed CPR on Ana until paramedics arrived to take her to hospital. She was pronounced dead in hospital.

The inquest continues.

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