‘It should have been safe’: Woman’s twin brother found under coat in emergency department says death was avoidable

IIn her life, Inga Rublite was just a patient in a busy hospital, waiting for a doctor. Following his death, the 39-year-old has become a tragic symbol of how overstretched and overburdened the NHS has become.

Rublite died after she was found unconscious under her coat in an emergency room waiting room more than eight hours after arriving.

Learning what happened to Rublite in the hours before her death has been heartbreaking for her friends and family.

She was in the Queen’s Medical Center (QMC) in Nottingham all night after arriving at 10.30pm on January 19 with a severe headache, dizziness, high blood pressure and vomiting.

When her name was called seven hours later, around 5:30 a.m., she was unresponsive and the staff discharged her, believing she was tired of waiting and was going home.

But over an hour later it was discovered that she had a seizure after falling asleep, and then passed out under her coat.

She was rushed to intensive care, but had suffered a brain haemorrhage and the haemorrhage was so severe that it was inoperable. She was pronounced dead two days later on January 22, when her life support was turned off.

“That’s the official date of death, but I think she actually died in that waiting room,” said Rublite’s twin sister, Inese Briede. “Nobody did anything for her. And by the time they found her, it was too late.”

She was very close to her identical twin brother, despite the fact that Briede lives in their home country of Latvia. “We talked on the phone every day, three times, sometimes more,” she said.

The couple had moved to Britain together in 2004 after completing school. When Briede moved back home in 2008, her twin sister stayed behind, gained GCSEs, worked permanently in Nottingham and became mother to two sons, now aged 13 and 11.

The boys are now being cared for by their father.

“She lived there for twenty years, she paid all the taxes, she worked hard and paid everything on time. She did everything right. Even that day when the headache came, she continued to work,” Briede said.

“In all those years, the only time she went to the hospital to ask for help, no one looked at her. I can’t describe what that feels like. That you can’t get help where you need to go for help.”

Rublite was chatting with her sister via FaceTime during her lunch break on January 19 when she suddenly started complaining of a headache. She took painkillers and finished her shift at a warehouse where uniforms were distributed, before going home and sleeping for five hours.

She woke up in the evening by her sister’s call. Her headaches were worse, she couldn’t sit still and she couldn’t eat.

“She measured her blood pressure and it was 156. I still remember that. That big number. I told her you need to call the hospital, you need to go to the hospital,” Briede said.

Rublite called an ambulance, but was told one was not available, and because she was too sick to drive, she asked her colleague and neighbor, Rasa Balzonyt, to take her.

Balzonyt described her friend as “very fit and healthy,” active and always smiling. In the warehouse where the pair worked, Rublite “did the work of two people, she worked so fast.”

“She was full of energy, she couldn’t sit still at home, she was always planning outings for us and the kids,” Balzonyt said.

She said Rublite felt dizzy and vomited on the ride to the hospital that evening, and when they arrived around 10:30 p.m., she was checked by a nurse who took her temperature and blood pressure.

She waited with her friend in the emergency room for two hours, until after midnight, but when the nursing staff told them it would take nine hours to get to a doctor, Balzonyt returned home to care for her son.

“No one saw her when I was there, her name was never mentioned. “I got so frustrated and angry,” she said. “I told her I would leave my phone on loud and she could call me when she was ready, whatever time, and I would pick her up.”

“I left her in a safe space, I thought she would be fine. I thought the doctors would help her. It was supposed to be the safest place. We didn’t realize how serious it was.”

In Latvia, Briede called her sister repeatedly in the morning, and around 7 a.m. the FaceTime call was picked up by a nurse who told her someone needed to come to the hospital immediately. In the background she saw her sister’s legs lying on a hospital bed.

‘They said they had just discovered that Inga was having a seizure. I was in shock – ‘where did you find her? Where?’ No one answered me,” she said.

Briede said doctors told her twice that if her sister had been treated sooner, she might have survived.

“I was told that this whole situation could have been avoided if someone had seen her, or if someone had just checked on her. It’s so hard to know that if someone did their job, there could actually still be someone here,” she said.

“I just couldn’t believe they took her off the waiting list when she didn’t respond. Has anyone looked for her? Did anyone check the CCTV cameras to see if she had left?’

Briede said she requested CCTV footage of her sister’s last moments in the waiting room, but her request was denied.

‘When they gave me Inga’s stuff back, there was vomit on her phone, on her wallet. Her clothes were soaked in urine,” she said. “I believe she was already unconscious when they found her, but at what time exactly did she become unconscious?”

As more and more people experience long wait times in emergency rooms, research indicates a corresponding increase in deaths. Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) showed that almost 14,000 people died unnecessarily in England last year while waiting up to twelve hours in emergency rooms.

Briede said she felt sympathy for the staff at QMC after visiting the hospital when she came to Britain the next day. She saw the crowded waiting room, beds in the hallway, angry patients yelling at the staff for having to wait so long.

“I know it’s hard for us, and for them too. When I came in, I told you how angry I was, that no one was looking after Inga and that you weren’t doing your job properly. And they quietly take over all of this. I feel guilty about that,” she said.

Her sister’s death will be investigated by a coroner at an inquest in July, and the family hope this will provide answers about what exactly happened and whether her death could have been prevented.

“This is not something you can just accept,” Briede said. ‘How long will the hospital continue to operate like this? Because it’s been that way for years. People are dying and everyone is silent about it.”

Dr. Keith Girling, medical director of the University Hospitals of Nottingham NHS Trust, which includes the QMC, said: “I send my sincere condolences to the family at this difficult time. An investigation is now taking place and until this has been completed we cannot comment further.”