Inquest begins into death of UWE rugby player
Maddy Lawrence was killed by sepsis developed in hospital after dislocating her hip playing a match
Last updated 29th Aug 2023
An inquest has begun into the death of a student from the University of the West of England (UWE), who passed away after being badly injured in a rugby match.
Maddy Lawrence (20), dislocated a hip being tackled during a match for the University on 9 March 2022 and was taken to Southmead Hospital, but during the course of her treatment she developed sepsis and died two weeks later.
The inquest at Avon Coroners Court will not seek to establish blame, but will try to work out how that happened.
A "loving, warm and understanding" girl
At the start of proceedings today, in a written statement prepared by her father, Maddy was described as "a wonderful daughter" who was "loving", "warm", and "understanding".
She was said to be very sporty, had set a school record for the 100 metres hurdles before going to university and was given a glowing reference by a former College teacher, who was quoted as saying "I have rarely taught students who light up the room as much as Maddy".
At the time of her death she was studying for an Interior Design and Architecture degree, where her lecturers were equally full of praise.
The injury
In written statements given by several of her teammates and friends, the inquest heard Maddy was injured a little more than five minutes into the match, which was a friendly against a team from the University of Bristol, at Lockleaze Sports Centre.
A physiotherapist who was present as an on site medic described her being tackled in a "big hit" after which she immediately began screaming in pain.
Such was the severity of the pain it was, the physio Paul Tomkins said, impossible to move her and so she remained lying on the pitch for around six hours until eventually an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.
Her treatment
Over the course of the next two weeks detailed evidence will be heard about the quality of Maddy's care, but already this morning we heard frustrations over the length of time it took for an ambulance to arrive and then about the quality of care at Southmead.
The inquest heard three separate 999 calls were made that afternoon, from 3:24pm around 15 minutes after the injury occurred, to 5:50pm when physio Tomkins asked for the case to be escalated.
Several witness testimony's described how an ambulance eventually arrived at around 8pm and took her to hospital at around 9pm, by which time her teammates were taking part in a social by the pitch, as others including Tomkins kept her as comfortable as was possible.
Discussing her stay in hospital, Maddy's father described how she was initially in "good spirits", but that the next day she complained of more pain and said nurses had been "dismissive".
Following an operation to put her hip back in place, the inquest heard how she was due to have a CT scan to establish if the operation had been successful, but by the Monday (14 March) she had still not had one.
As her condition deteriorated she was eventually moved to Intensive Care and had her leg amputated in an attempt to save her, but on Friday 25 March doctors said the treatment had failed and advised her life support be turned off.
In a statement sent to us today North Bristol NHS Trust Chief Medical Officer, Tim Whittlestone, said: “Our thoughts remain with the family at this very difficult time.
"The Trust has fully co-operated with the Coroner’s investigation, and it would be inappropriate to comment further until the conclusion of the inquest.”
Since her death Maddy's family have set up a charity Maddy's Mark in her memory, which you can find out more about here.
The inquest is due to end on Friday 8 September.