A 26-year-old law student who died from a brain abscess after four remote GP consultations was likely to have lived if he had been given a face-to-face appointment, a coroner has ruled.
Assistant coroner Abigail Combes told Wakefield Coroner’s Court at an inquest into David Nash's death that the failure to arrange an in-person examination of the musician when he complained to an advanced nurse practitioner of fever, neck stiffness and night-time headaches was a “missed opportunity”.
Speaking to the court on Friday, Combes said the failure of the Leeds GP surgery to see Mr Nash face to face after his fourth consultation meant the neurosurgery he underwent on what turned out to be a brain abscess was 10 hours later than it could have been.
