A MOTHER who collapsed and died just weeks after giving birth was told by her doctor she had suffered an anxiety attack and should 'go away and do something fun and come back when you are feeling more relaxed'.

GP Dr Nuala Morton was taken to task by a coroner on Tuesday, who criticised her for not keeping notes about her patient's visit to the surgery.

The shocking claim that she should go off and enjoy herself despite several collapses and fainting attacks were made at an inquest into the death of Michelle Roach, from Bracknell, by her husband George as he gave evidence.

The Berkshire coroner heard that Mrs Roach died from a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot on her lung.

She had several times told her husband 'I can't breathe' moments before she collapsed.

Following her death, Mr Roach was left to bring up the couple's baby daughter who is now four years old.

Mrs Roach, 32, died of pulmonary embolism in 2014, just over a month after she gave birth to her daughter Mackenzie-Lee, but an investigation did not reveal serious errors in the management of her care until 2017, the inquest was told.

George Roach, giving evidence at the inquest in Reading, told how his wife had been kept under observation after giving birth as her heart rate continued to climb and she had been given antibiotics but then collapsed on the first family walk they had taken together with the baby.

Mr Roach told the coroner: "We went out on January 11 on a chilly day and for the first time we'd taken our baby out. We had made it maybe three or four minutes into the walk from the house when Michelle turned to me, looking panic-stricken and said 'I can't breathe'. She then collapsed.

"I caught her on the way down and called an ambulance. She came back around but she was passed out for maybe 30-35 seconds," he said.

On the January 15, the couple went to see their GP, Dr Morton, who was aware she had been taking Ventolin.

She agreed to lower the dosage, but the inquest heard that Dr Morton had failed to ask whether Michelle had been unconscious and failed to make some basic checks for pulmonary embolism.

However, on January 29, the date of the baby's six week check up, Michelle collapsed again.

Mr Roach told the coroner: "She got up, got into the bathroom and as she came back into the room she was almost looking like she was having an asthma attack.

"She thought she was, so she sat down on the bed and used her inhaler.

"Then she looked at me and her eyes rolled back and she collapsed and started making what can only be described as weird noises.

"She came back around after 45 seconds, obviously shaken because she didn't know what was going on. We went to the doctor because we had the appointment already made, otherwise it would have been to the hospital.

"Dr Morton advised that Michelle was having a panic or anxiety attack and said 'go away and do something fun and then come back when she's relaxed a bit'."

The inquest heard that Dr Morton had noted down that Michelle was "anxious plus plus, and panicky", but had not noted down her blood pressure, that she had fallen unconscious or that she was short of breath. Dr Morton said Michelle had not been short of breath at that consultation.

The next day Michelle's condition worsened and Mr Roach called Dr Morton at 8.50am but it wasn't until gone 6pm in the evening that Dr Morton called back and Michelle was rushed to hospital where she cried out in pain and said she could not breathe.

She died on January 31 of pulmonary embolism.

Coroner Mrs Connor grilled Dr Morton, who insisted she had asked further questions to establish whether Michelle had in fact fallen unconscious and had taken her blood pressure, although there was no record of this.

Mrs Connor said: "I wonder if there is an element of having one's cake and eating it here. You say she was not short of breath and yet she used her Ventolin (inhaler).

"You have reached a conclusion of the most likely cause for those symptoms without sufficiently ruling out something more serious."

Dr Morton replied: "I think I did ask the questions, that I did take into account all that was being said to me. I think the only thing I didn't do was document it."

The coroner replied: "Forgive me but you don't seem sure, Dr Morton. I wonder whether sometimes time does strange things to our memory and we might wish we'd done something and that becomes what we actually did in our memories."

The inquest continues.