A young 33-year-old mother died from sepsis after being given the wrong antibiotics, as reported by London Now.
Aleisha Rochester, from Croydon, died two weeks after undergoing a routine procedure to remove abscesses from her left armpit and groin and an inquest found that her death was contributed to by neglect, with a coroner ruling she would likely have survived had the correct antibiotics been given in time.
Ms Rochester’s mother, Lorna, said: "There’s a huge void in our family and the hardest thing to try and come to terms with is how she’ll never get to see Xavier grow up and celebrate milestones in life.
"We’ll make sure Xavier knows how much his mummy loved him and how proud she would be of him.
"However, I don’t think our family will ever get over the pain of losing Aleisha, especially in the way we did.
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"All we can hope for now is that by speaking out, we can help improve care for others and raise awareness of how important it is to spot and treat sepsis correctly."
The bank cashier, who had a long-term skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa, had undergone a routine day procedure at St Thomas’ Hospital on Saturday, August 5, 2023 and at some point after Thursday, August 10, she became unwell and the wound to her left armpit became infected.
She sought medical help several times but was repeatedly prescribed antibiotics not suited to her infection, reports our sister title London Now.
She was admitted to intensive care on Thursday, August 17 and died two days later.
The coroner found that Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals failed to follow its own treatment guidelines.
Lorna Rochester has now launched legal action against the trust.
Dr Richard Jennings, group chief medical officer for St George’s, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals, said: "We know we failed Ms Rochester by not giving her the correct antibiotics, with tragic consequences, for this we are extremely sorry and offer our deepest apologies and condolences to her family.
"We sadly can’t put this right for Ms Rochester, but we would like to assure her family that we have learned from Ms Rochester’s death, and we have taken multiple steps to prevent this happening again."
The trust said it is now delivering additional staff training on sepsis recognition, improving its antibiotic prescribing procedures and regularly auditing compliance with its guidelines.
