Richard Baker represented the family of Sarah Dunn at an inquest in Blackpool after which the coroner returned a conclusion that her death was contributed to by neglect.
Sarah was a 31 year old mother of five who underwent a termination on 24 March 2020, the day that the Prime Minister announced the first national lockdown. She developed heavy bleeding about a week later, which she reported to her GP on 1 April 2020 and then became more unwell before reporting symptoms of infection and sepsis to her GP surgery on 9 April 2020 and to NHS 111 and an out of hours GP during the early hours of 10 April 2020. Despite this, none of the clinicians who interacted with her recognised or acted on the symptoms of sepsis or properly assessed her. She was admitted to the Blackpool Victoria Hospital at about 9am on 10 April 2020, after which there was a further 7 hour delay in providing her with antibiotics due to misdiagnosing as a COVID-19 patient. She died during the early hours of 11 April 2020.
The case was in the Times and Daily Mail last week and the neglect conclusion is reported in both today (see below):
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