The death of a nursery worker at Croydon University Hospital (CUH) was not the result of medical negligence, a coroner has concluded.

Pamela Morris, 56, of Dornford Gardens, Old Coulsdon, suffered multiple organ failure days after undergoing emergency surgery for a hernia in September 2014.

An inquest opened soon afterwards but was later halted after medical experts were unable to agree on factors that had contributed to the death.

Yesterday, almost exactly two years after Mrs Morris was admitted to hospital complaining of abdominal pain, coroner Adela Williams concluded the mother had "died as a result of real complications from necessary medical treatment".

In a short narrative verdict delivered at Croydon Coroner's Court, Ms Williams said: "What we have is a lady who was clearly unwell who needed to have surgery in an emergency, who suffered what were recognised - albeit unusual - complications."

The court heard how Mrs Morris, who worked at a staff nursery at Sutton’s Royal Marsden Hospital and was known to her family as Pam, had been a "generally healthy" woman despite previously suffering from bowel cancer in 1999.

On August 26, 2014, she was admitted to CUH with cramps, vomiting, and difficulty going to the toilet.

Although she was found to be suffering from a parastomal hernia, doctors initially thought it would reduce and allowed her to go home.

She returned to the hospital for observation on September 4, before being discharged on September 11.

But the following day she was readmitted suffering from more pain and vomiting, when doctors discovered the hernia had become irreducible.

A surgeon decided it was necessary to operate promptly and Mrs Morris went under the knife on September 14.

Despite minor complications during surgery, medics believed the procedure had gone well and Mrs Morris would recover - "which she initially appeared to do," said the coroner.

But days later she suffered hypoxia and chest sepsis, leading doctors to have concerns she had a pulmonary embolism, although this was not confirmed by a scan.

On September 22 she experienced a significant fall in blood pressure and liver failure and was transferred to the high dependency unit, where her condition deteriorated.

The coroner said: "Despite extensive attempts to resuscitate her, this proved impossible."

Mrs Morris died on September 24.

A post mortem of found no trace of portal vein thrombosis (PVT), despite medics treating Mrs Morris with anti-coagulants after suspecting PVT from the CT scan.

Giving evidence to the inquest yesterday, Professor Julia Wendon, a liver specialist and executive medical director at King's College Hospital, said it was likely that Mrs Morris had suffered a pulmonary embolism.

While unusually "devastating" in their effects, symptoms that Mrs Morris suffered following her operation were "recognisable complications of hospitilisation generally," Professor Wendon said.

She added: "I don't think you can reasonably say that if [surgeons] had operated at any different time, those events would not have happened."

Explaining her decision to record a narrative verdict, Ms Williams said she did not believe that "either of the two short form verdicts open to me truly reflect the situation in this case".

There was "no scope" for a report into preventing future deaths as a result of the inquest, the coroner said.

In a statement released through their solicitor, Mrs Morris's family - husband Keith, sons Stuart and Chris, and sister Carol - said she was sorely missed.

They added: "She was a very determined lady, having overcome bowel cancer in 1999 which was treated by surgery, permanent colostomy and radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

"Leading up to the events at Croydon hospital in September 2014, Pam was poorly because she had developed a hernia by the colostomy. She just wanted to get back to her work, looking after pre-school children at the Royal Marsden staff nursery.

"We all miss Pam very much. We are relieved that the inquest is now over and want time to collect our thoughts. We hope that lessons can be learned from the inquest to help prevent other people suffering from the complications that Pam developed which led to her death."

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