Bethan James' doctor 'astounded' by how quickly sepsis progressed
A top doctor at the hospital where a 21-year-old died from combination of sepsis, pneumonia and Crohn's disease says he does not believe any treatment would have saved her. Bethan James, the daughter of former Glamorgan and England cricketer Steve James, died on 8 February 2020 at University Hospital Wales in Cardiff after she had been seen at hospital on a number of occasions in the days leading up to her death.Her mother, Jane James, previously told the court she felt medical staff missed opportunities to treat the journalism student for sepsis.But a consultant told the court he was "astounded" at the speed of the deterioration in Ms James' health and that there was "no cure".
Dr Duncan Thomas, who was in charge of resuscitation at the hospital, said he had never seen anything like Ms James' deterioration in a patient of her age and only one other time previously in his career. He told the inquest he did not believe anything would have saved the student from the moment she arrived at hospital two and a half hours earlier.Doctors also concluded nothing more could be done to resuscitate her after she later went into cardiac arrest, the inquest heard. Dr Thomas said Ms James, from Cardiff, had a viral rather than the more common bacterial form of sepsis.Ms James was treated with fluids and antibiotics but the consultant said "nothing we were providing would stop the ongoing pathological progress of that viral infection".There were no drugs in use at the time to tackle viral sepsis, the inquest heard.
After arriving at hospital Ms James was seen by a triage nurse and sent to the acute "majors" zone of the emergency department for more than an hour rather than the highest level resuscitation area, the inquest heard. Dr Thomas said it would have been appropriate for the hospital to be given a pre-alert that Ms James was being brought in by paramedics to the emergency department.If he had received the alert, the consultant said he would have taken steps to attempt to create room in resuscitation where tests would have revealed an hour earlier how ill she was. However, it would not have made any difference to Ms James' outcome, Dr Thomas told the coroner.
"It is my belief Bethan would have died," he said.Dr Thomas said that given the results of the tests it was likely she had had sepsis for "some considerable time, likely hours".Under questioning from Ms James' family's lawyer, Dr Thomas agreed that with earlier high level intervention the time she went into cardiac arrest may have been delayed - but maintained she would likely still have done so.Dr Thomas said: "Bethan's death had a profound impact on myself. She died in an atypical and rapid way which has stayed with me."
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