A MUM-of-two died of a heart attack after she was "fobbed off" 13 TIMES in a year by doctors who dismissed her chest pain as stomach ache.

An admin blunder meant Michelle Ditcher's family history of heart failure was kept "hidden" from a number of medics who treated her, an inquest heard.

The 33-year-old repeatedly visited Ashcroft Medical Practice in Levenshulme, Manchester, complaining of chest pains and a shortness of breath.

But she was sent home and told to take the painkiller ibuprofen, after being diagnosed with "gastro-intestinal" problems.

Mrs Ditcher then went to A&E at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and was told she needed urgent treatment at a rapid access clinic.

But her GPs never received the referral due to another admin blunder, the inquest heard.

Three months later she collapsed at home in Levenshulme and was rushed to hospital where she died a short time later.

Post mortem tests revealed she was suffering heart disease and had a severely high cholesterol.

At an inquest in Manchester, the hospital and doctors at the surgery were condemned for its failings by a coroner while the Mrs Ditcher's husband accused the practise itself of ''neglect".'

The hearing was told the tragedy occurred in November 2014 even though records showed Mrs Ditcher's father had suffered a  heart attack at the age of 40 and her brother had suffered a heart attack aged just 33.

Mrs Ditcher's husband Alan, 43, said in the eight years he had known his wife the only significant illness she suffered was asthma - but in last 18 months of her life she had been ''backwards and forwards'' to her GP with chest pains.

He said: "The chest pain affected her day to day life greatly and she struggled picking our children up from school and there were times where I had to leave work early just to help her walk.

"We felt that this was not properly investigated by her GP and the strongest treatment she was given was ibuprofen.

I believe the GP surgery neglected my wife and their lack of investigation has resulted in her death

''It has been no secret that her both her brother and father had a history of heart problems.

"Yet every time she came home from an appointment she always had the impression that she was being fobbed off.

"She went there with pains to the left and right arm and her back and chest - she felt like she was constantly being bear hugged.

"But she felt that when she complained of these various pains that the GP had fobbed her off - and it was always a different GP.

"She kept going from the GP to the A&E department at hospital and being sent home and then the same thing would happen again."

Two days before his wife passed away, Mr Ditcher said he had a phone call from her saying she couldn't walk home due to her extreme chest pain and shortness of breath.

The 33-year-old could barely speak when he got home, and he called an ambulance.

Paramedics told the couple the mum-of-two needed a scan but were told she had to be referred by a GP.

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The ambulance crew arranged the referral via their own GP, and an appointment was made.

Mr Ditcher said: "This would not have been done for weeks if we left it to Michelle's own GP.

"I believe the GP surgery neglected my wife and their lack of investigation has resulted in her death."

GP Dominic Hyland, who treated Mrs Ditcher twice for chest pains, told the inquest her family history was "hidden within her GP record" and failed to go into great detail.

He said: "We now make it clear that if a patient reveals a family history then that is recorded as a significant problem.

"Looking back with hindsight the chest pains and sensation in the mouth may have been angina.

"She was almost certainly describing angina and I did not consider it.

''Clearly this was a missed opportunity to investigate and refer her to a chest pain clinic."

Michelle was failed so many times... But for the above failures, her death would have been prevented

Dr Naveed Khanna, another GP at the Ashcroft surgery said: ''There were opportunities to start her on statins and I wished I had started her on these when I referred her because I now know about her familial history and my main regret is not having full sight of the full clinical picture."

A third GP Dr Alexander Frame said: "There were missed opportunities to asses her cardiovascular risk and I take collective responsibility in how the process works at Ashcroft surgery.

"There was a failure by the practise to recognise cardiac symptoms and to make a referral to the access chest pain clinic."

Dr Steven Saltissi an expert cardiologist said it was likely Mrs Ditcher experienced a heart attack in 2013 and had been living with coronary artery disease until her death in November 2014.

He said: "The GP surgery were unaware of two really important risk factors including the hypercholesterolemia and a very strong history of coronary disease in the family.

"If she had been sent to the rapid access clinic her coronary disease would have been treated and she would have received appropriate treatment.

"If this had been done in time, her death would have been prevented.

"The organisational failure to pass on recommendations to the GP led to the failure to prompt GP's to refer Michelle to the clinic.''

Recording a narrative conclusion, assistant coroner Nick Stanage said the surgery had come up with an ''action plan'' to address issues following Mrs Ditcher's death but it appeared the hospital had not investigated the tragedy.

He said: "Michelle was failed so many times and I fear a recurrence of preventable deaths will happen in the future as a result of failings to ensure that clinician's instructions are clearly communicated to GP surgeries.

"While it would not be appropriate for me to say this was a death aggravated by neglect, each of the following failures in her care and treatment contributed to her death.

"There was a failure to keep a record or document the diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia and failure to initiate statin therapy for familial hypercholesterolemia.

"There was also a failure to ensure that Michelle was referred to the rapid access chest pain clinic and there was a failure to diagnose and treat angina.

"But for the above failures, her death would have been prevented."

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