The family of a young primary school teacher say she was denied a real chance of survival after an undiagnosed blood clot claimed her life just a day after she left hospital.

Dena Collins, 28, from Eltham in south-east London, died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Greenwich, on 12 January 2023. A post-mortem found she suffered a heart attack caused by a blood clot that had formed in a deep vein and travelled to her lungs.

Three days earlier, Dena had seen her GP about severe pain in her left leg. She had even messaged relatives, saying she feared a clot after checking her symptoms online. However, she was reassured it was likely muscle pain.

The day before she died, she went to A&E with four days of leg pain, fever and diarrhoea. She arrived using a crutch, was limping, and felt breathless. Staff recorded a raised D-dimer level, which can signal a clot, and noted the possibility of deep vein thrombosis. Even so, she was diagnosed with a possible ruptured cyst and told to return the next day for a scan.

The following morning she collapsed at home. Her father started CPR before paramedics took her back to hospital, where she died a few hours later.

A serious incident review later found warning signs had been missed, including her leg pain, shortness of breath, recent illness and use of the combined pill. Her sister Clare told the inquest the death was avoidable and has left the family “destroyed.”