Inquest ‘Teenager would’ve survived with antibiotics’
ATEENAGER who died during a school trip to New York would have survived if she had received antibiotics in the days before her death, an inquest heard.
Ana Uglow, 17, a student at Bristol Grammar School, collapsed in her hotel room and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai West hospital on December 19 2019.
Avon Coroner’s Court has heard that Ana, a senior prefect who aspired to attend Oxford University, was on a school history trip to Washington, Philadelphia and New York at the time.
Her parents, David and Natalia Uglow, said Ana told teachers she thought she had a chest infection and asked to see a doctor two days before her death but this was “refused”.
However, the two teachers Rory Hambly and Ellice Clare have insisted that Ana only complained of feeling tired and having a blocked nose, and did not directly ask to see a doctor.
A report by the chief medical examiner of the city of New York concluded that Ana, of Redland, Bristol, died from bronchopneumonia and sepsis complicating an influenza upper respiratory infection.
Yesterday, two experts told the inquest that Ana would have survived if she had been given antibiotics in the days before her death.
Dr Nelly Ninis, a consultant general paediatrician, said Ana’s pneumonia would have been cured if she had received “high-dose, broad-spectrum oral antibiotics” and taken them as directed on December 17.
“If she had received oral antibiotics, I think that would have prevented the secondary infection,” she said.
On December 18, Ana asked her teachers if she could stay in her hotel room rather than going on a walking tour but went along after speaking to them. Dr Ninis said: “If two doses of antibiotics could have been taken and kept down by the evening of December 18, I think it would have slowed down what happened.”
She told the inquest that if Ana had attended a hospital “at any point” that day, she would have been assessed and started on high-dose intravenous antibiotics.
“I believe she would have survived,” Dr Ninis said.
Professor Andrew Lever said Ana would have survived if she had been given antibiotics on either December 17 or 18.
Prof Lever was asked whether he believed Ana would have survived if a paramedic had been called and provided her with appropriate treatment at that stage, before she suffered a cardiac arrest at 8.15am.
“On the balance of probabilities, the things that influence me to say that she could have survived is that her collapse was a very sudden event,” Prof Lever, an expert in infectious diseases, said.
“In terms of that morning, the fact that she was physically well and walking around and able to go and knock on the teacher’s door suggests that things had not reached a critical point.”
The inquest continues.