Mystery of student’s sudden death in first week at university
A STUDENT died from a mystery illness during her first week at university – the day after a walk-in clinic doctor told her she was not ill enough to go to hospital.
Abigail Hall, 18, was found unconscious in the bathroom four days after moving into her accommodation in freshers’ week, an inquest heard.
She had been vomiting and complaining of stomach pains for three days before her flatmate found her.
Miss Hall, a biomedical sciences student at Sheffield Hallam University, had gone to a nearby medical centre with her parents the day before she died in September 2015.
The inquest in Sheffield heard a communication issue with the doctor may have played a part in the tragedy.
Her parents Mark and Charlotte Hall, from Doncaster, told the hearing she had described her vomit to the doctor as made up of ‘coffee-coloured granules’.
Dr Thomas Pollak said if he had heard that expression he would have taken her condition more seriously because it would suggest there was coagulated blood in her vomit.
He added: ‘Coffee- coloured vomit, which she may well have said, is completely different.’
It was reported at the time that Miss Hall’s boyfriend Josh Thompson was given permission by her family to put a diamond engagement ring on her finger soon after she died.
Mr Thompson, a tennis coach, posted a photo of her hand with the ring on Facebook, writing: ‘Abigail Hall and I are now engaged. She is my life.’ He said he had planned to propose the following year.
At the hearing Dr Pollak said her sudden death was still a ‘mystery’ to him. Mrs Hall said the doctor had given her daughter a prescription for Buscopan, used to treat stomach cramps, and told her she may be suffering from a virus.
Miss Hall refused to go home to her parents, insisting on staying in Sheffield to enrol on her course the next day.
Her housemate Agata Paliwada told Sheffield Coroners’ Court she went to check on Miss Hall just before 7pm, when she found her collapsed.
Paramedics tried to revive her but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
A post-mortem examination revealed the student’s lungs contained some form of ‘foreign material’. A pathologist said this was her primary cause of death but added he could find ‘no explanation why’ it had entered her lungs.
On her first night in Sheffield she joined friends at a club and she went to a ‘paint party’ the next evening. After the party Miss Hall, said not to be drunk, returned to her halls and was vomiting regularly, according to a friend. The inquest continues.