{"id":54105,"date":"2026-06-02T02:12:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/54105\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T02:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:12:29","slug":"student-20-treated-like-time-waster-before-collapsing-and-dying-in-agonising-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/54105\/","title":{"rendered":"Student, 20, ‘treated like time-waster’ before collapsing and dying in agonising pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Libby Instone, 20, from Billingham, Teesside, had been to an urgent care centre three times in 24 hours before she finally collapsed and died, after medics said she had gastroenteritis\"Libby<\/p>\n

Libby Instone made repeated visits to an urgent care centre in the days before she collapsed(Image: Family handout\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

A usually fit and healthy university student <\/a>died in agonising pain after medics made her feel like a \u201ctime-waster\u201d, her grieving mother told an inquest.<\/p>\n

Libby Instone, 20, from Billingham, Teesside, had been vomiting for days when she finally collapsed and died. She had been to an urgent care<\/a> centre three times in 24 hours but was told that she was suffering from gastroenteritis before her death in August 2023.<\/p>\n

Libby had been studying law at Newcastle University <\/a>and had hoped to become a barrister, Teesside Coroner Clare Bailey, sitting in Middlesbrough, was told. The inquest heard she had died as a result of an infarction of her small intestine.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Libby Instone died scared and in agony, her mother said(Image: Family handout\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Libby\u2019s mother Susan Instone, 57, told the inquest that her daughter had returned from a trip to London with her boyfriend on August 16 when she began vomiting and was in extreme pain.<\/p>\n

With Libby continuing to retch, Mrs Instone rang 111 on August 18 and took her daughter to North Tees Hospital Urgent Care Centre (UCC), where she was prescribed anti-sickness drugs but was not examined, she said. Her daughter, who she said was usually fit and energetic, was sent home, but her concerned family took her back to the UCC that evening where a doctor said Libby had gastroenteritis and was put on a saline drip.<\/p>\n

Mrs Instone, who attended the inquest with Libby\u2019s father Ian, said her daughter was again sent home at 1.30am on August 19, only for her to vomit \u201cblack liquid\u201d in the car park. Her parents took her back to the UCC at 2.30pm that day as she was \u201ctotally exhausted and very weak\u201d, her mother said.<\/p>\n

After discussion with a member of staff at the UCC, the family decided to take Libby to an accident and emergency unit and started the waiting process again. Mrs Instone said they waited for around nine hours for Libby to be seen and a nurse put her on a drip. She was also given painkillers and anti-sickness medication, the inquest heard.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Newcastle University student wanted to be a barrister(Image: Family handout\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Libby was admitted to a ward that night, and the next day her parents visited her but claimed staff were pre-occupied watching a penalty shoot-out in the Women\u2019s World Cup on TV. Later that day, Mrs Instone said Libby was allowed to go home but that she continued to feel so unwell, she was carried back to bed after she had sat with the family for a while. Her mother tried to feed her tomato soup, which she could not manage.<\/p>\n

Mrs Instone said: \u201cShe said she was scared and asked if she was going to die. I laughed and told her not to be daft.\u201d Minutes later, Libby collapsed and paramedics were called. Libby was taken to hospital but could not be saved, the inquest heard.<\/p>\n

Mrs Instone said: \u201cA female member of staff then came up to me and told me that they had just thought that she was a time-waster. She was a nurse. We had just lost Libby and I didn\u2019t know what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days after her death, Mrs Instone said the family were told by the hospital that Libby could not have been saved, and only found out the truth six months later. Mrs Instone said: \u201cMy daughter\u2019s last few days of life were horrendous. Libby was in constant agony, she was scared.”<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Libby Instone was treated as a time-waster, he mother said(Image: Family handout\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to hospital trusting in the people we believed would look after her but Libby was let down by doctors who were meant to take care of her. Libby was treated as an annoyance, a time-waster and was never shown any compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n

An independent medical expert, instructed by the coroner, found that Libby had not been able to open her bowels for some days and that should have aroused suspicion among medics that she did not have gastroenteritis, as a usual symptom was diarrhoea. The report found that multiple chances were missed for a scan of her stomach to be undertaken, and that an operation could have successfully treated her blocked intestine.<\/p>\n

Dr Michael Stewart, group chief medical officer for North Tees and Hartlepool and South Tees Hospitals<\/a> NHS<\/a> Foundation Trusts, told the inquest he offered \u201can unreserved and sincere apology for the missed opportunities in Libby\u2019s care\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was a \u201cdegree of confirmation bias\u201d regarding the unchanging diagnosis of gastroenteritis. The coroner was expected to give her conclusion on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Libby Instone, 20, from Billingham, Teesside, had been to an urgent care centre three times in 24 hours…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1224,450,26547,5,6],"class_list":["post-54105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-hospitals","tag-inquests","tag-newcastle-university","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116678095320547370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}