A CORONER has sounded the alarm over the 'remarkably similar' deaths of two women who died a day after leaving hospital.

Dr Nicholas Shaw, an assistant coroner for Cumbria, urged the trust that runs Furness General Hospital to make changes following the deaths.

His concerns were laid out in a prevention of future deaths notice published following the inquest of Nancy Rogers.

She died aged 75 in her home in Ocean Road, Walney Island, on November 19 last year due to a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

The day before, she had collapsed near Barrow town centre and been taken to hospital, where she was discharged pending test results, an inquest heard.

The inquest ruled she died from natural causes.

But Dr Shaw said there were concerning parallels with the death of Shirley Potter, who died in February 2023.

Writing to the medical director of the Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, he said: "At the inquest into Shirley Potter's death the hospital report indicated no learning was required as her presentation was not typical.

"The circumstances in both these cases are remarkably similar in that both ladies attended the emergency department at Furness General and were allowed home only to die within a day of the same cause and as far as the attending clinician at today's hearing knew no learning or teaching has taken place since Nancy's death.

 "In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you and the wider Trust have the power to take such action."

Jane McNicholas, the trust's chief medical officer, said changes had already been made.

“We take the fact that the Coroner has issued this PFD report extremely seriously and we have already taken action," she said.

"Prior to the inquests and the issuing of the PFD report, we commissioned a Patient Safety Incident Investigation to understand what happened and what we can do differently going forward.

“The findings of the investigation have led to a number of actions, such as ensuring that senior clinicians provide oversight of patient care in our Same Day Emergency Care service and improving communication between colleagues triaging patients in our Emergency Departments (EDs), paramedics and senior ED clinicians.

"We have also shared the learning from the case with all relevant colleagues so they can be more aware of the relatively rare condition of aortic aneurysm.

"We aim to complete our investigation and respond to the PFD report within the set timescale (56 days)."