‘Opportunity missed’ to give ‘warm and kind’ Chichester woman better care, inquest hears

Susan Carr enjoyed going on beach walks with her husband and their dogs

An opportunity was missed to give better care to a ‘warm and kind’ grandmother who died at St Richards Hospital in Chichester, an inquest has heard.

Susan Carr, of Wessex Avenue in East Wittering, was taken to hospital by paramedics after complaining of chest pains at just before 1am on Saturday, October 27, the inquest heard.

The 67-year-old was checked by doctors at A&E and discharged at 5.25am – however just minutes later she ‘slumped’ in her seat and was brought back to hospital, where she died.

A postmortem showed the cause of death to be a hemothorax, an aortic dissection, an aortic aneurysm and hypertension.

Her family described Susan as ‘a wonderful wife, a caring mother, a devoted grandmother and a great friend’ who was ‘loved by so many’.

She had a ‘witty sense of humour’ and enjoyed walking her dogs Marley and Jackson daily on the beach in West Wittering with her husband.

The inquest at Crawley Coroner’s Court on Tuesday heard that Susan had previously been diagnosed with rib cancer and also had a 6cm aortic aneurysm.

Penelope Schofield, West Sussex Senior Coroner, said Mrs Carr had told the ambulance service that she had an aneurysm and that they had noted it down.

However she said: “For some reason this information was not handed to the hospital when she was admitted.

“This probably was a missed opportunity for this information to go to the doctor.”

On the ward, the doctor completed a full history with Susan – however there was no mention of the aneurysm, the inquest heard.

Ms Schofield said: “We can only assume that Mrs Carr didn’t tell the doctor, or he didn’t ask the right questions.”

The doctor carried out tests and after any acute coronary issues were ruled out, Susan left the hospital.