By Charlotte Webster-
A teenager who tragically died weeks after leaving for university was failed by “every NHS organisation that should have cared for her”, an Ombudsman review has found.
Averil Hart,
Averil Hart, of Colchester died of a heart attack by anorexia in Norwich in 2012. She was woefully failed by a bunch of careless practitioners across the NHS who should have saved her.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) concluded that her death could have been prevented if the NHS had not been negligent.
The NHS services involved with Hart have accepted the report’s findings, and vowed to make the necessary changes. Changes that should have been in place already.
Miss Hart became unwell after her A-levels at Colchester Royal Grammar School . She spent 10 months as an in-patient at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge as a result of her ill condition. She was later discharged from hospital and continued her educational journey after her A levels to study creative writing.
The finding of the Ombudsman exposes the shameful failing of the NHS in a way that calls for complete transformation of its procedures. Hart was negligently abandoned despite NHS officials being aware of her eating disorder.
Miss Hart was suddenly discovered collapsed at the university in December 2012 . She was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital by ambulance but saw no specialist eating disorders clinician for three days after her admission. Her condition had deteriorated by then, by which time her chances of survival had reduced to zero.