Family’s heartbreaking reaction as they’re told beloved young woman could have survived

‘We truly hope things can be changed’, Clarissa Street’s loved ones said following the conclusion of an inquest into her death

The devastated loved ones of a young woman who died amid ‘gross failings’ in her hospital care broke down in tears as a coroner concluded she ‘more than likely’ would have survived if she had received ‘appropriate’ treatment.

Clarissa Street, 24, from Rochdale, was left corridor late at night at Royal Oldham Hospital for more than a hour. She was handed an oxygen mask that wasn’t connected to anything while suffering from a ‘massive’, undiagnosed blood clot on the lungs.

A doctor later carried out two procedures that were ‘not medically required’ and ‘precipitated’ a fatal cardiac arrest – the result of a pulmonary embolism, Rochdale Coroners’ Court heard.

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Clarissa – a University of Manchester graduate from Castleton who studied sociology and earned the Dean’s Award for her dissertation – had been feeling unwell for several days. She suffered bouts of vomiting and couldn’t sleeping before she collapsed and lost consciousness.

Her boyfriend rang an ambulance and she was taken to Royal Oldham at around 11.25pm on August 13, 2024. The inquest into Clarissa’s death heard a paramedic suggested she was ‘overreacting and having a panic attack’ when she was passed over to triage staff.

She had previously experienced a provoked pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis, in 2017, and had taken blood thinners for several months afterwards.

After she arrived at Royal Oldham, Clarissa was given an oxygen mask that wasn’t connected to anything ‘to try and regulate her breathing’ and spent more than an hour in a corridor before being transferred, the inquest heard.

Recording her conclusion on Friday (May 15), area coroner Catherine McKenna said there were ‘serious failings’ in Clarissa’s triage and the initial management of her treatment.

She said Clarissa had a National Early Warning Score (NEWS) of eight, meaning she was ‘critically ill’. That fact was not escalated and she didn’t receive the ‘care and attention her condition required’, Ms McKenna added.

The coroner said decision the decision not to hook up her oxygen mask was ‘not based on recognised nursing practice’. That fact, and the ‘failure to act on observations that showed she was acutely unwell’ were ‘gross failings’, she added.

Those failings did not, however, cause Clarissa’s death, Ms McKenna said. After being transferred to higher care shortly before on August 14, a doctor failed to obtain and consider Clarissa’s full medical history; didn’t review the results of an ECG; and ‘misinterpreted’ the readings on a bedside cardiac monitor, the hearing was told.

The doctor then carried out a Valsalva manouvre – a breathing technique performed by exhaling forcefully against a closed airway – and carotid sinus massage, intended to slow heart rate and lower blood pressure.

Ms McKenna said those were not ‘medically required’; were ‘inappropriate’; and ‘precipitated’ the cardiac arrest Clarissa suffered. The coroner said those were ‘basic care failings’ that were ‘contributing factors in her death’.

Ms McKenna said she was not satisfied those errors were ‘gross failings’, and so was unable to record a finding of neglect. The coroner said that ‘in no way minimises the gravity with which the court regards these failings’.

She said she agreed with expert evidence that Clarissa would have had a ‘more than 50 per cent chance’ of survival if she had not gone into cardiac arrest.

Ms McKenna, who recorded a narrative conclusion, said that: “I find that had Clarissa receivied appropiate care and treatment from the time she arrived, a primary diagnosis of pulmonary embolism would have been confirmed. More than likely she would have survived this acute episode.”

A number of Clarissa’s family members were in court. They burst into tears as Ms McKenna delivered her findings. The coroner thanked her loved ones for the ‘dignity’ they had shown during the proceedings and told them: “I am truly sorry for your loss.”

In a statement issued following the hearing, her family said: “We are truly devastated about the loss of our favourite person Clarissa. She will forever live on in our hearts and minds. We will always be shaped by the impression she left on all of us.”

They said they believed she was ‘treated as an overreacting young woman’ and that they ‘truly hope things can be changed’ to stop other families suffering similar tragedies.