A teenager was “condemned to death” after a massive error of judgement by a consultant at Basildon Hospital, an inquest heard.

Kirsty Pearce, 17, of Gordons, Pitsea, who suffered from 14 complex medical conditions, was admitted to hospital suffering from coughing and shortness of breath in August 2003.

Her parents, who have fought for eight years to get answers, finally heard how their daughter died at an inquest on Friday.

She died of pulmonary edema, a condition where there is an abnormal build-up of fluid in the lungs.

Speaking at the inquest, consultant Dr Stephen Wade said his decision not to send her to the intensive care unit the night before she died contributed to her death.

He said: “It was a bad decision of mine and I have found that very hard to come to terms with.

“If my advice had been different maybe the outcome would have been different.

“By not putting her in the intensive care unit sooner it was condemning her to death. It was a massive error of judgement. It was a fault of mine and I gave bad advice.”

Kirsty suffered from 14 complex medical conditions including arthritis, asthma, growth failure, and impaired kidney function among others.

She was well known on the children’s ward at Basildon Hospital, where she was admitted on her last visit.

She was admitted to the hospital on the evening of August 28, 2003.

She was given two doses of frusemide throughout the night, to try to cure her shortness of breath, but Kirsty’s condition worsened.

She had responded well to the medicine on previous occasions, when she came into hospital suffering the same symptoms.

Dr Raghavendra Ganga-wahi, who was the doctor on duty that night, told the inquest he did not send Kirsty straight to intensive care, because he wanted to wait and see if the frusemide worked.

Dr Gangawahi had three phone conversations with Mr Wade that night, who was the on-call consultant and had previously cared for Kirsty.

He advised Dr Gangawahi at 3.30am, after two doses of frusemide, not to send her to intensive care and to give her a third dose of frusemide at about 3.30am.

Kirsty’s condition deteriorated. At about 6.30am, she was sent to intensive care.

By 7am, Kirsty had suffered a cardiac arrest and medics tried for 40 minutes to resuscitate her.

Dr Gangawahi, had never cared for Kirsty before, and was the only registrar covering the paediatric unit that night. While caring for Kirsty, he was also helping to deliver and care for a baby born at 24 weeks.

Recording the narrative verdict, coroner Tina Harrington said: “There was a failure to record the seriousness of Kirsty’s condition, which led to a delay in transferring her to an appropriate intensive care unit or high dependency unit.

“Notes and medical information was scant. Looking at all of this, Kirsty may not have survived this episode. But the delay in getting the right sort of treatment from doctors contributed to Kirsty’s death.”