An inquest hearing was told of "serious concerns" about the care received by a 22-year-old mother during her stay at a Nottinghamshire hospital. Jodie McCann was admitted to the King's Mill Hospital, in Sutton-in-Ashfield, on March 16 last year and was found to have gallstone pancreatitis.
Jodie suffered a cardiac arrest at the hospital on the morning of March 18 and was eventually transferred to Queen's Hospital in Burton on March 22. It was there where she lost her life on April 2 after having phoned her mother on March 17, saying that she thought she was having a heart attack.
The inquest into Jodie McCann's death was first opened last November and a further hearing took place at Nottingham's Council House on Friday (February 3), as part of a pre-inquest review ahead of the full hearing. During Friday's hearing, Assistant coroner Dr Elizabeth Didcock explained one of its primary purposes in terms of the prevention of future death.
Read more: 'Serious concerns' over case of dad slashed to the face with knife
Dr Didcock said: "This is not about blame, but there are a number of serious concerns and questions that the family have raised. Indeed, coming to this case, I also have a number of concerns and questions about the care provided at King's Mill and also the care provided at Burton Hospital."
The February 3 hearing was held to determine the scope of the final inquest, which will take place at the end of March, as well as the witnesses who will attend and the evidence that will be heard during it. Those attending Friday's hearing included Sloane Warbrick, Jodie's mother, who attended virtually alongside Jason Duckworth, Jodie's uncle.
Sloane Warbrick said the last time she heard from her daughter was in a phone call made from King's Mill Hospital on March 17, the evening before her cardiac arrest. Speaking about the call, Sloane Warbrick told the inquest: "She called at 4.30 every day in the afternoon.
"It was about 4.37 that she called and she said 'Mum help me, I think I'm having a heart attack.' She was in so much pain, she was crying.
"I said Jodie, you need to press your button, you need to get help, you need to call for a nurse. She insisted she did that, we waited about three or four minutes and then I heard someone say 'Jodie, what's wrong?'
"On that I said 'Jodie, I'm going to leave you now but please get somebody to phone me.' She said 'love you mum, speak to you soon' and that was the last time I heard my daughter's voice."
In previous tributes following Jodie's death, Jodie's best friend Skye Smith described her as a "loud and bubbly" person who put everybody else before herself. Jodie was originally from Salford but later moved to Nottinghamshire and had just enrolled to start training as a nurse at the time of her death.
Sloane Warbrick said following Jodie's death last year: "You don't expect your daughter to pass away after going into hospital for pancreatitis. She was healthy and used to walk everywhere.
"She was too young. Her little boy is only four-years-old. She had so many things to look forward to." As well as her son, Jodie had seven younger siblings
The inquest opening last year heard that a post mortem examination had been carried out and that the provisional cause of death was hypoxic injury following loss of airway during tracheostomy (an opening created at the front of the neck so a tube can be inserted into the windpipe). This caused multi-organ failure and a heart attack, against a background of gallstone pancreatitis.
Speaking about the evidence being gathered for the final inquest hearings, Dr Didcock also spoke of her "surprise" that the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the King's Mill Hospital, had not carried out a trust review into the circumstances surrounding Jodie's death when evidence was being collated last December.
Dr Didcock said: "I asked for additional evidence from the trust, particularly to try and understand a little bit more about events on the night of the 17th and into the morning of the 18th of March when Jodie had her collapse. I do now have those statements and those statements do provide me with additional information.
"When I was without any kind of trust review, and that was the position on December 20, I wrote to Dr David Selwyn, the medical director at the trust, expressing some surprise that there was no trust review. In my experience, it would be usual where there was a sudden and unexpected cardiac arrest for there to be some kind of review."
The hearing heard that an independent review is now being carried out and that this should be completed by February 28. Dr Didcock also said that an expert had been appointed for the coroner's court to provide a report into Jodie McCann's death, which is also expected by February 28, whilst the trust running the Queen's Hospital in Burton is also having an independent review carried out.
The next inquest hearings will hear from representatives of both the Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust and the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Queen's Hospital. Those next hearings are scheduled to take place across three days, beginning on March 29, at the Council House.
READ NEXT:
- Claim rail work has left area 'bare' like 'after a 'hurricane'
- Tributes to 'kind and loving' ice cream man who served town for 40 years
- Fight to save 'glorious' Victorian home on River Trent from demolition
- Residents 'over the moon' by flood measures fitted at their homes
- Channel 4 viewers struggle with bad language as Guy Phoenix looks to create £1bn Nottingham property
