Staying in Derriford Hospital 'could have saved woman's life'

A 20-year-old woman who died from sepsis might have been saved if she had not been discharged from hospital, an inquest has heard.

Senior consultants said it was "inappropriate" for Chloe Rideout to be discharged when she was.

Ms Rideout, from Coverack in Cornwall, was first treated at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth and later died at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro in 2018.

The inquest into her death is being held at New County Hall in Truro.

Ms Rideout died from multi-organ failure and sepsis a week after she was discharged from Derriford Hospital where she had undergone a routine appendix operation in October 2018.

A surgery professor told the inquest Ms Rideout should have remained an in-patient and it was inappropriate for her to be discharged.

Professor Marc Winslet, an emeritus professor of surgery and honorary consultant surgeon at the UCL and Royal Free Hospital in London, said "serious" issues were raised after she was treated at the hospital in 2018.

However Mr Winslet was not critical of the treatment Ms Rideout received at the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske where she was later admitted and died.

A consultant surgeon from Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust agreed and said her discharge had an impact on her eventual outcome.

If Ms Rideout had not been discharged, further investigation and intervention would have taken place which could have "potentially saved her life", said Tim Wheatley.

The deputy medical director of the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Paul McArdle, apologised to Ms Rideout's family for the opportunities that were missed.

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