Team GB triathlete Ellie Penrose died after her meningitis was misdiagnosed as stomach pains, inquest hears

Inquest hears teenager was 'inappropriately discharged' from Hull Royal Infirmiary after junior doctor on his first week in A&E failed to recognise her symptoms

Ellie Penrose died after a doctor misdiagnosed her with gastroenteritis (Facebook)

A teenage Team GB triathlete died from meningitis hours after a junior doctor wrongly diagnosed her with a stomach bug, an inquest has heard.

Ellie Penrose, 18, died the day she found out she had got into her top choice university after being "inappropriately discharged" from Hull Royal Infirmary and sent home with painkillers.

The day before Ellie’s death in August 2015, the teenager was at home in Cottingham, East Yorkshire when she told her mother she had a headache and could not stand the light being on.

Concerned, her mother Pauline called the NHS Direct hotline for advice and the call handler told her to go to East Riding Community Hospital in nearby Beverley where staff referred her to the A&E at Hull Royal.

When Ellie was admitted she was told a consultant was not available and she was instead seen by newly qualified Dr Don Hettiarachchi on his first week in A&E shortly after 3am on 13 August.

Dr Hettiarachchi told the inquest he was "not 100 per cent sure" why Ellie was ill and had asked fellow trainee Dr Ayman Ghoneim for advice, the Hull Daily Mail reports.


 The teenager competed for Team GB in athletic competitions around the world
 (Facebook)

He had considered meningitis but said she had no rash so he considered it to be "more viral".

He said: "I did not treat it as meningitis because I felt it didn't fit with the general picture".

When asked if what he would have done differently he said would have gone to ask a registrar for advice.

He accepted that he did not tell Dr Ghoneim about her high blood pressure, low pulse rate and skin blotching but denied it was because he had already reached a diagnosis.

She was eventually diagnosed with dehydration and gastroenteritis and sent home.

Over the course of the morning her condition deteriorated and paramedics were called to take her back to A&E.

Ellie was admitted to A&E for a second time the next day but not given antibiotics till 1pm (Facebook)

She was seen at 11:30am but not given antibiotics till 1pm by which point her body was already going into "shutdown".

She died later that day from "overwhelming sepsis" caused by meningococcal septicaemia.

Coroner Professor Paul Marks adjourned the inquest to a later date, saying he wanted an expert opinion on whether she would have survived if she had been given antibiotics sooner.