A YOUNG Accrington college student died from multiple organ failure after two operations failed to save her, an inquest heard.
Raista Parveen Rafiq, 21, of Blackburn Road, who was studying catering and hospitality at Blackburn College, contracted pneumonia and died in May, seven days after being admitted to Blackburn Royal Infirmary.
Her devastated eldest sister, Rifaat, said: "Initially the doctors were quite positive and said everything would be fine.
"We were told there was no danger and we thought she would get better and we could take her home."
Miss Rafiq, a former Rhyddings High School pupil, was admitted to hospital on 20 May complaining of sickness and diarrhoea.
Her condition deteriorated quickly and doctors operated to remove a bowel obstruction, caused by surgery at birth to move internal organs that were on the outside of her body.
Although Miss Rafiq began to recover, she contracted a lung infection and septicaemia. Doctors operated again but she was "overwhelmed" by her symptoms.
Miss Rafiq's family complained they were badly informed by hospital staff and employed a barrister to question doctors.
Surgeon Ahmed Bhowmick said he was happy with the operation and nothing could have been done differently to prevent Miss Rafiq's death.
Andrew Bridgman, counsel for the family, put it to consultant surgeon Andrew Mowsdale that once Miss Rafiq became "extremely poorly" she should have been ventilated sooner.
Dr Mowsdale, who didn't treat her but oversaw the department, said: "I would have been concerned her respiration was so low. It would have been hard for her to breathe and it might have helped if she had been ventilated sooner."
Summing-up, Michael Singleton, coroner for Hynd-burn, Blackburn and the Ribble Valley, said Miss Rafiq's body was overwhelmed by the infection and she died "as a result of the recognised complication of essential surgery".
He told father Muhammed Rafiq: "I am a father myself and can only imagine the grief your family have gone through.
"Having had expectations that Raista would recover, to have your hopes dashed in those circumstances must have been tragic beyond belief."
