![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2_ljr_260625_bethan4.jpg\")
Bethan James died following an avoidable cardiac arrest(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\nThe 21-year-old’s devastated family have said it has been like losing her all over again after an inquest found her death could have been prevented<\/p>\n
12:49, 26 Jun 2025Updated 12:53, 26 Jun 2025<\/p>\n
Bethan James died following an avoidable cardiac arrest(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n
Bethan James should still be alive today. Her parents Steve and Jane James have known this ever since medics at the University Hospital of Wales<\/a> in Cardiff<\/a> pronounced her dead on February 8, <\/strong>2020. But it has taken more than five painful years of \u201cfighting tooth and nail\u201d for a coroner to finally validate it as true.<\/p>\n In June an inquest found that talented young journalist Bethan died due to a combination of pneumonia and sepsis, which was complicated by the immune suppressing effects of her previously diagnosed Crohn\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n It saw the 21-year-old from St Mellons in Cardiff suffer a cardiac arrest which doctors could have and should have prevented, it was heard.<\/p>\n In the week before her death doctors failed to recognise the seriousness of her condition and Bethan was never admitted into hospital.<\/p>\n She was dismissed and told that she would likely be \u201csymptom free\u201d in a matter of weeks, before she struggled to walk a short distance back to her family\u2019s car.<\/p>\n Then on Saturday, February 8, 2020, medics failed to recognise or act on Bethan\u2019s symptoms of sepsis until it was too late.<\/p>\n Over the next five years Steve and Jane were denied an inquest into Bethan\u2019s death on three occasions, despite them being adamant that a number of mistakes had been made.<\/p>\n It was only when lawyers acting on behalf of the family threatened a judicial review that an inquest was agreed to go ahead, taking place earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there had been an inquest straight away things would have been a lot different,\u201d said Steve, a former cricket star and sports writer for The Times. \u201cI dread to think how many people have died in the same sort of way in the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n Coroner Patricia Morgan, who oversaw the inquest, said that Bethan likely \u201cwould not have died\u201d if medics at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CVUHB) and the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) acted appropriately sooner.<\/p>\n Steve and Jane have received an apology from WAST, but are yet to receive one from CVUHB.<\/a><\/p>\n Ms Morgan asked the health board to set out why certain routine life-saving sepsis are routine in English hospitals, but are seemingly not implemented at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where Bethan died.<\/p>\n The health board told WalesOnline it has met its deadline for sending that information, and Ms Morgan will now consider the evidence to decide if a regulation 28 to prevent future deaths should come into effect.<\/p>\n Although the outcome of the inquest confirmed the family\u2019s intuition all along, Steve and Jane said the validation offers them little closure.<\/p>\n Jane, a physiotherapist for Sport Wales, said: \u201cThe whole thing is torture, but to think it has been five years that we have been pushing for this, and what it has taken out of us emotionally. It is constantly in your head and you are constantly waiting for the next email.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of these things should have happened in that first year and we should have had all the answers within the first year and we have still been learning new things in the inquest.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting emotional and turning to her husband, she said: \u201cI don\u2019t know about you, but the grief feels worse at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve replied: \u201cIt feels like she has died again. It is horrendous.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWe are obviously happy with the conclusion because it is what we said and thought all along.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t give us closure, it actually makes it worse because it validates the fact that she should be here and it doesn\u2019t make anything better.<\/p>\n “But from our point of view, we said all along that we had to fight for Bethan, we had to fight for justice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe coroner saying that she shouldn’t have died is pleasing for us in terms of all the work we’ve had to do to get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n They said part of that fight had been getting their hands on Bethan\u2019s medical notes, which they described as being a long and laborious process.<\/p>\n Once they received the notes Jane said she was taken aback by \u201chow poorly\u201d the notes were written, including notes not being signed and others written in retrospect after Bethan\u2019s death.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cMy heart goes out to any families that have to go through anything like this process to get answers from the NHS<\/a> and find out what happened to their relative because having experienced what we have gone through, with those barriers put up when you are at the lowest point in your life; you look for answers and you are constantly pushed back.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve added: \u201cWe\u2019ve been lucky Jane is a medical professional – when I read those notes I\u2019m totally clueless – I fear for other couples who don’t have anyone medical in the family, or [don\u2019t have access to a lawyer.]\u201d<\/p>\n Having described receiving important pieces of the puzzle in dribs and drabs, Steve and Jane said they were left in a position where they did not know why Bethan died until after her funeral.<\/p>\n Jane said: \u201cBethan\u2019s funeral was on March 3 [2020] and I remember being on the phone [to the health board\u2019s concerns department] and saying: \u2018It\u2019s Bethan\u2019s funeral tomorrow and people will ask how she died and we can\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n Even by that point Jane said the family – including Bethan – had never been informed that Bethan had been diagnosed with pneumonia.<\/p>\n The inquest heard how this was a diagnosis given to Bethan during an urgent appointment at Llandough Hospital on January 28, just over a week before she died, but it was not communicated to the family.<\/p>\n Steve said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t know it was pneumonia until\u2026 I don\u2019t know how long after [she died]. We were in the car when we got the interim post mortem results and it said \u2018pneumonia\u2019. We looked at each other and said: \u2018What? Pneumonia?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Jane added: \u201cThey tried to dismiss it by saying it\u2019s the same as a chest infection, but if someone tells you \u2018pneumonia\u2019 – there is a big difference and I think Bethan would have taken more notice of that.”<\/p>\n In the days that followed Bethan continued to feel very unwell and visited A&E at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff on a number of occasions.<\/p>\n However, it was heard how medics did not go far enough to investigate her respiratory symptoms, especially within the context of Bethan having Crohn\u2019s disease: a chronic inflammatory bowel disease associated with reduced immunity.<\/p>\n The inquest heard a number of disturbing interactions during these hospital visits in which Bethan was verbally dismissed by medics and made to feel like a burden, to the point that she did not want to go into hospital.<\/p>\n On one occasion it was heard how a consultant at A&E made the comment: \u201cYou again!\u201d It came when Bethan had been advised to return to hospital if her symptoms persisted.<\/p>\n On another occasion a doctor told Bethan about a young female patient he recently saw who had recovered and was \u201csymptom free\u201d.<\/p>\n Steve and Jane said it was this comment that made Bethan reluctant to go into hospital on the day that she later died. It was also the comment that saw Steve miss Bethan\u2019s death, having agreed to work away in Ireland on the basis that his daughter would recover.<\/p>\n Steve said this haunts him and led to him developing post traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD).<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI don\u2019t think he realises the impact that comment had on Bethan or on me. That was the reason why I went to Ireland [to report on that] rugby match and that will stay with me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m unable to do my job properly at the moment because I\u2019m unable to go away, I basically have PTSD. Bethan was saying right at the end that Dr Willis said that I’m going to be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Further detailing his experience of finding out his daughter had died, Steve said: \u201cThat Saturday for me is so traumatic because the weather<\/a> in Ireland was really bad and the flight could have been cancelled.<\/p>\n “The flight was actually delayed. That meant it was about an hour after Bethan died that I got there.<\/p>\n \u201cJane called me a couple of times when I was on my way back and on the M4<\/a> somewhere I was told that Bethan had died. I had to pull over and [my friend] had to take over the wheel. I think about that day all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI wake up sometimes after nightmares where the flight has been cancelled and I am swimming across the sea to try and get back to see Bethan, and it\u2019s horrendous.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to talk about to be honest. It is very traumatic and there are feelings of guilt about being away and thinking if I had been there, would I have been able to have convinced Bethan to have gone into hospital on the Friday? Or earlier on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquest heard how at around 6pm on Saturday, February 9, 2020, Jane called for an ambulance. But despite Bethan showing clear signs of sepsis – including her blood pressure being \u201cunrecordable\u201d – paramedics did not “pre-alert” or warn the hospital of Bethan\u2019s arrival, leaving medics unprepared.<\/p>\n Knowing what they know now, Steve and Jane said an unrecordable blood pressure is a telltale sign of sepsis which should have resulted in a pre-alert. Steve said the well-known symptom should have been recognised by paramedics as “the reddest of red flags”.<\/p>\n The lack of action from paramedics meant Bethan was taken into the majors department, instead of resus where she could have received more specialist treatment.<\/p>\n It was heard how there was a delay of more than an hour before Bethan was treated in resus, by which point the family say it was \u201ctoo late\u201d.<\/p>\n The parents maintain that Bethan should have been admitted into hospital in the week before her death, recalling how on one occasion she even \u201cstruggled to walk\u201d as she left UHW.<\/p>\n Failing that, they believe there were more opportunities to save Bethan\u2019s life on that Saturday.<\/p>\n Steve said: \u201cShe should have definitely been admitted on the Wednesday and if not, the Thursday, and if not on the previous Sunday. There were so many missed opportunities to admit her and I just don\u2019t know why they didn’t.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go through from start to finish and see how many mistakes there were, and how many chances there were, it\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n But even after Bethan passed, the family say she continued to be dismissed, claiming that they even heard a nurse refer to her body as \u201cit\u201d. It is something that the nurse denied during the inquest, but has \u201cstuck with\u201d the family.<\/p>\n Jane said this had particularly impacted Bethan\u2019s then 14-year-old brother Rhys who they say overheard the comment.<\/p>\n Steve and Jane are now campaigning for Martha\u2019s Law to be implemented in hospitals across Wales.<\/p>\n This is a patient safety initiative in English NHS hospitals, granting patients and their families the right to request an urgent review by a critical care outreach team if they are concerned about a patient’s deteriorating condition.<\/p>\n Jane said the family understands that a scheme called Call4Concern is currently being piloted in some Welsh hospitals.<\/p>\n However, when she visited UHW A&E in May 2025 with a family member she said she was appalled to see that \u201cnothing had changed\u201d in the last five years.<\/p>\n She recalled seeing no posters or leaflets referring to the pilot.<\/p>\n Paying tribute to her daughter, Jane said: \u201cBethan was just a joy all through her life. We keep saying she was the kindest and that\u2019s because she was.<\/p>\n \u201cEven from a young age she was kind and considerate. She had that way about her where she always thought of others.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was shy growing up until her teenage years when she was 14 and 15 and she became interested in vlogs.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first we were reluctant for her to do that on social media, but we soon realised it was her forte.<\/p>\n \u201cShe would film them on all sorts of subjects like mental health, make-up and Crohn\u2019s. She really came into her own and she lost that shyness about her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was doing really well with her journalism degree. In that January that\u2019s when she did her pitch for [a] BBC<\/a> Crohn’s documentary; off her own back she got in touch with Amy Dowden.\u201d<\/p>\n Steve added: \u201cI was amazed when she started doing the vlogs because of her shyness. She had a lot of health problems growing up that she fought through, but it obviously added a real inner steel to her.<\/p>\n \u201cThose vlogs revealed a side of her that I wasn’t aware of previously. The Crohn\u2019s diagnosis hit her hard but she was then determined to raise awareness through the Crohn\u2019s and colitis [charities]. She was always thinking of others – that sums up her character.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the end of her life she almost felt like a burden, because she was always thinking of others. She was such a kind and caring soul.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_lcjr.jpg\")
Steve and Jane outside Pontypridd coroner’s court(Image: John Myers)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ljr_260625_bethan8.jpg\")
Bethan with her parents Steve and Jane James with her younger brother Rhys(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2_ljr_260625_bethan6.jpg\")
Steve and James want Martha’s Law to be rolled out to all hospitals in Wales(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ljr_260625_bethan3.jpg\")
The family only learnt about Bethan’s pneumonia diagnosis after her death(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n![\"Bethan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2_JS272677191.jpg\")
Bethan was the daughter of Glamorgan and England cricket star Steve James(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n![\"Bethan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ljr_260625_bethanj.jpg\")
Bethan had a successful career in journalism ahead of her(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n![\"Bethan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ljr_060625_bethanjames1-CopyJPG.jpg\")
Bethan James wanted to raise awareness of Crohn’s and documented her diagnosis on YouTube (Image: YouTube)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ljr_260625_bethanj1.jpg\")
Bethan was a ‘kind and caring soul’, her family said(Image: Steve James)<\/p>\n