'Fit and healthy' woman, 26, died from rare heart condition after doctors sent her home claiming she had 'anxiety'

Mariona Garcia Ramon, 26, had complained to friends about shortness of breath and a tightness in her throat days before her death.

Less than 24 hours after being sent home by her GP, she was found unconscious by her boyfriend Norbert Bare at their Brighton home.

She was rushed to the Royal Sussex County Hospital but died on May 2.

It wasn’t until a post-mortem that doctors discovered one of her three heart arteries was blocked, despite her otherwise being in the peak of health.

Pathologist Dr Mark Howard told Woodvale Coroners Court he was surprised at finding the blockage, which was extremely rare for someone "so healthy".


He said she had been "incredibly fit and healthy apart from one blockage" and had no other symptoms to suggest a cardiac diagnosis.

He added: “She was just incredibly unlucky to develop the fatty plaque where she did at such a young age.”

The inquest heard Mariona – a Spanish student who moved to Britain – had been working at Walkabout Bar in Brighton on  April 30 when she told co-workers she was struggling to breathe.

She went to a NHS walk in centre that day and was told by a nurse it was probably a physical manifestation of anxiety.


That night, Mariona woke up again feeling like something was stuck in her throat.

She was examined by a doctor the next day, May 1, who again said it was likely to be anxiety.

Dr Catherine Burgess, of the Pavilion Surgery said: "She was anxious, frustrated and tearful, but nothing more than that.

"We talked about cutting out the caffeine and alcohol and doing some relaxation. I also told her about the Wellbeing Service she could self-refer to.

"I wasn't suspecting at all that she had a critical condition."

But the following morning, she collapsed and died.

Assistant coroner Catherine Palmer said: “It’s not surprising that it wasn’t identified in a woman of her age with no specific symptoms … there was nothing to indicate at that stage at all that there was a cardiac problem.

“This was an extremely rare event and it would have been extremely difficult in the circumstances to have identified it. Anxiety was an appropriate diagnosis.”

According to the pathologist, of the 5,751 female patients treated by the Sussex Cardiac Centre since it opened in 1999, only one woman under the age of 30 had suffered a heart attack.

Friends have since spoken of their shock at Mariona’s death with co-worker Graham Hudson saying: “I was working with her on the Monday and she was complaining about having trouble breathing.


“My initial thought was it was a chest infection or a cold coming on.

“That night she left and everything seemed fine.

“Nobody saw it coming. It was a really big shock.”

He added: “She was a really hard worker.

“She literally always had a smile on her face."

Friend Paige Burt, 25, also paid tribute to the young Spanish woman, who had been “head over heels” with boyfriend Norbert.

She said she took comfort that Norbert had been with Mariona for her final hours.

She said: “She was the happiest, bubbliest person.

“You could go to her with any problem and she would always turn it into a positive, there was never a negative.”

Paige, who also works at the bar, said Mariona had been a fit and adventurous young woman who even went scuba diving during her travels around Europe.

She said: “She was just a sporty girl.

“She did anything.”

The coroner concluded acute cardiac arrest, or a heart attack, as the cause of death and recorded a verdict of natural causes.



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