Nurse dies after hospital mistakes heart attack for gas

Ivers was found unconscious inside her home by her 9-year-old daughter, three days after going to the hospital. A necroscopic examination showed that she suffered a dissection of the thoracic aorta, which occurs when the inner layer of the aorta ruptures. The condition progressed to internal bleeding that resulted in cardiac arrest.

Family sued the British healthcare system for negligence. In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, Lesley Ivers, Paula’s sister, said the nurse had been “abandoned” by the NHS. “It’s a cruel irony that she was an advocate for the NHS and yet, when she needed it most, she was neglected in the worst possible way,” said Lesley.

Simon Norbury, Paula’s husband, told the courts that his wife was in “severe pain” but was ignored by the professionals who attended to her. “We were shocked to have lost her after we were told it was just indigestion and nothing to worry about.”

An investigation investigating Paula’s death is still being processed in the British courts. The authorities, however, ordered the NHS to create new protocols to prevent similar situations from recurring.

NHS said it regrets Paula’s death. In a press release, NHS-linked Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care said it would “carefully review the coroner’s findings” into her death.