A WOMAN bled to death in hospital, where she was being treated for a dislocated knee, despite the efforts of doctors and nurses to save her.

As nurses attempted to turn 40-year-old Catherine Russell in her bed, to change her dressings, she had a major haemorrhage.

An inquest heard yesterday how the 18 stone housewife suffered the haemorrhage at the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Plastic surgeon Martin Coady told Deputy Teesside Coroner Gordon Hetherington at the inquest in Middlesbrough that he was stunned at the turn, and speed, of events.

Colleague Christopher Burdess was 30 seconds from Mrs Russell's side, when alarmed nurses called to him to help.

He said: "I am puzzled as to why Mrs Russell was in extremis so quickly. Dr Burdess was there so quickly. He was just outside the room.''

Even though Mr Coady responded promptly to the summons from nursing staff, he said Mrs Russell was already in a serious condition when he arrived.

Mrs Russell, who lived in Vicarage Avenue, Stockton, had been receiving the anticoagulant Heparin while in hospital.

When she began haemorrhaging, she was quickly given a reversal agent.

The inquest heard how Mrs Russell was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, after dislocating and tearing her left knee.

She had been injured while stepping over a one-foot high fence near the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in Nelson Terrace, Stockton.

She had been with her ten-year-old son, Mark.

Because of the muscular and vein damage she had suffered when she slipped on April 22 this year, Mrs Russell was transferred to the James Cook University Hospital, on May 11. She died on May 19.

The extent of the damage to her knee was the reason the wound had not closed despite five operations.

Pathologist Dr Mustansir Nurbhai said the cause of death was haemorrhage from a dislocated knee.

Her husband, welder Stephen Russell, 40, told the inquest that a hospital doctor told him his wife's injury was limb-threatening, not life threatening.

The inquest continues today.