Doctors sent home sepsis sufferer who told them he 'felt like he was dying', inquest hears

A student was failed by doctors who didn't spot he had sepsis, a coroner ruled at his inquest after medics sent him home despite him telling them he "felt like he was dying”.

Tim Mason, 21, had flu-like symptoms but was discharged just after 8am on March 16 without further treatment, an inquest in Maidstone, Kent, heard.

But hours later the Sussex Downs College student, who was training to be an electrical engineer, was rushed back into Tunbridge Wells Hospital's accident and emergency department for the second time that day. He was appropriately treated, but died hours later.

Senior coroner Roger Hatch, delivering a narrative inquest verdict, said that given the results of his blood test, temperature and heart rate, Mr Mason should have received a sepsis screening and been reviewed by a senior doctor when he was first at hospital.

The coroner said: "Had he been correctly diagnosed it is most likely he would have been prescribed intravenous antibiotics and he would not have died.

"This should have occurred when he attended the hospital six hours earlier on March 16 when he first presented."

However, the initial failures to correctly diagnose and treat Mr Mason did not amount to neglect, the coroner said.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has accepted liability and admitted breaching a duty of care by discharging Mr Mason with such symptoms.

Mr Mason died after his organs began to fail and he had a cardiac arrest while in an induced coma.

His mother, Fiona Mason, said she hoped these issues would be "acted on with all seriousness" as she remembered her son as a popular man who was looking forward to his career and going travelling.

She said: "Our house used to be full of laughter and life. It is now quiet and we are all struggling.

"If changes are made that result in lives being saved, that will be of some small comfort."