A 47-year-old UK National Health Service (NHS) nurse died just three days after being discharged from a hospital where doctors misdiagnosed her heart attack as indigestion, a coroner’s inquest has heard.
Paula Ivers, from Tameside, Greater Manchester, visited the Accident & Emergency (A&E) department at Tameside Hospital in March 2024, complaining of ‘crushing’ and ‘horrendous’ chest pain, which she described to her partner as being “worse than childbirth.”
A Timeline of a Tragic Misdiagnosis
Despite her severe symptoms and a known family history of cardiac issues, she was directed to a Same Day Emergency Care unit. After a chest X-ray and blood tests came back clear and her clinical observations were within a normal range, doctors reassured her the pain was merely “trapped wind” or indigestion and advised her to buy Gaviscon, an over-the-counter antacid.
Tragically, three days later, Paula was found collapsed on her bedroom floor by her 9-year-old daughter. She had suffered a thoracic aortic dissection—a tear in the major artery supplying blood to the heart. This led to an internal bleed and cardiac arrest.
Inquest Reveals Critical Oversights
During the inquest at Stockport Coroner’s Court, it was revealed that her condition had been “significantly underestimated.” The chest pain she reported was likely an early sign of a serious cardiac issue that went untreated.
The incident has raised serious concerns about the handling of chest pain in emergency departments, particularly in women, whose heart attack symptoms are often atypical and misinterpreted.
A Family’s Grief and a “Cruel Irony”
Paula’s family has accused the hospital of failing in its duty of care. Her sister, who is also a nurse, described the situation as a “cruel irony,” stating that Paula, a “fierce advocate and defender of the NHS, was let down in the worst way possible when she needed it most.”
“We were shocked to have lost her when we were told it was indigestion and there was nothing to worry about,” Paula’s husband added.
The inquest heard that Dr. Osama Ahmed, an emergency medicine consultant at Tameside, had reviewed Paula’s ECG results but did not personally examine her. He testified that he now recognizes she was not low-risk and should have been hospitalized immediately, though he noted that an aortic dissection is a rare condition.
