WOMAN DIED AFTER NURSE GAVE HER DISCONNECTED OXYGEN MASK
A 24-year-old university graduate died at a hospital in 2024 after paramedics told staff she was overreacting and having a panic attack and a triage nurse gave her a disconnected oxygen mask. Clarissa Street died hours after arriving at Royal Oldham Hospital. A 2026 inquest into her death concluded that prompt medical care would have likely saved her life.
Clarissa became unwell on August 13, 2024. According to the Oldham Chronicle, she suffered from dizziness, vomiting and repeated fainting before an ambulance was called.
Paramedics brought her into the emergency department. During the hospital handover, the medics suggested to the staff that she was “overreacting and having a panic attack,” The US Sun reported.
Staff Nurse Michelle Neale was the triage nurse on duty that night. She ordered tests for the young woman but also placed an oxygen mask on her face that was not connected to an oxygen supply.
During the May 2026 inquest at Rochdale Coroners Court, Neale testified that she “didn’t know” why she used a disconnected mask. She accepted that she should not have done it. Neale told the court the mask regulated Clarissa’s breathing, and she then handed the patient over to a more senior nurse.
The triage nurse told the inquest she instructed the senior nurse that Clarissa needed a cubicle. Instead, the 24-year-old was left in a hospital corridor for about an hour.
The hospital staff decided that because Clarissa was young, they would just keep an eye on her and administer fluids. “Normally I would challenge it but Clarissa was talking to me,” Neale told the inquest. “She could speak to me in full sentences.”
Despite her ability to speak, Clarissa had an elevated heart rate and low blood oxygen saturation. A report from the Manchester Evening News noted her National Early Warning Score was an eight. That score meant she should have been taken directly to resuscitation.
Instead, her condition deteriorated significantly once she was finally moved to higher care. She died in the early hours of August 14, 2024, from a pulmonary embolism. Fatty liver disease was also recorded as a background condition.
Missed diagnosis
Clarissa had a previous, provoked pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis in 2017. She took blood thinners at various times after that event. The inquest heard that national medical guidance at the time did not require a hematology referral for her earlier case.
Medical experts testified that her 2024 embolism was unprovoked. The inquest concluded the fatal event could not be linked to her 2017 medical history.
Clarissa graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in sociology. Her family described her as a creative, well-liked and outgoing young woman.
Her university’s School of Social Sciences released a tribute saying she earned the Dean’s Award for her dissertation. They stated she was a talented and dedicated student who would be “deeply missed.”
An expert witness told the coroner that Clarissa would have had a greater than 50 percent chance of survival with a prompt diagnosis and treatment. The expert stated that an urgent CT scan should have been ordered to guide treatment.
The coroner issued a final conclusion in mid-May 2026. The inquest found “gross failings” in the hospital’s failure to respond to medical observations showing Clarissa was critically unwell. The coroner also characterized the use of a disconnected oxygen mask as an act not aligned with recognized nursing practices.
“I find that had Clarissa received appropriate care and treatment from the moment arrived, primary diagnosis pulmonary embism would have been established,” the coroner stated in the findings. “More than likely, she would have survived this acute episode.”
A law firm representing Clarissa’s family provided a final update on the case in November 2026. The firm stated that a mistaken hospital diagnosis of supraventricular tachycardia led medical staff to perform vagal manoeuvres. This incorrect response triggered the cardiac arrests that resulted in Clarissa’s death.
