College worker, 23, killed by DVT

A VERDICT of accidental death has been recorded in the case of a 23-year-old college worker who collapsed and died of a blood clot which was caused by a fall at work three weeks before.

Laurence Cawley

A VERDICT of accidental death has been recorded in the case of a 23-year-old college worker who collapsed and died of a blood clot which was caused by a fall at work three weeks before.

Andrea Norris worked as a learning support assistant at West Suffolk College in Bury St Edmunds when she slipped and injured her leg on January 30 this year.

When Miss Norris, of Semer Close in Stowmarket, was taken to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury, it was thought initially she had suffered a sprain. It was six days before the excruciating pain in her leg was correctly diagnosed as a broken leg.

At an inquest into her death held yesterday in Bury St Edmunds, it emerged Miss Norris, her fianc� Robert Stanton and her mother Johanna had all voiced their concerns about pains she felt in her lower leg and swelling around her ankles which it later emerged could have been a sign of a deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Within three weeks of the accident in the kitchens at the college, the 23-year-old bride-to-be collapsed, stopped breathing and died. Pathologist Dr Sheila Purdy told the inquest she had died of a pulmonary embolism caused by deep vein thrombosis (DVT) as a result of her leg injury.

The inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death.