A 27-year-old man died after spraining his ankle while on a country walk with his dog.

But after an inquest Callum Jones’s mother Kim said she believed his life could have been saved had he had a face-to-face consultation with his GP just four days before he died.

Instead, Callum spoke on the phone to his GP Dr Chris Murphy only because of his breathing problem and didn’t mention that he had been wearing a protective boot since the fall.

Dr Murphy told the inquest in Ruthin that had he been aware of the injury and Callum’s limited mobility he would have taken the risk of a blood clot into account.

Callum, who weighed 26 stones, was rushed to the Countess of Chester Hospital on October 15 last year and died three days later, the cause of death being given as pulmonary embolism – or clot – due to immobility caused by sprained ligaments.

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In a statement read at the hearing Kim Jones said that Callum, of Maes Pinwydd, Ewloe, Flintshire, and other members of the family were walking their dogs in Loggerheads Country Park on October 3. He overbalanced when one of the dogs pulled as he crossed a slippery footbridge.

Callum, deputy manager of a car saleroom, first attended Holywell Cottage Hospital and the same day went to Glan Clwyd Hospital, where it was thought he had fractured his ankle.

He was given a supportive boot and told to return on the 11th to the fracture clinic, where it was found to be a sprain, not a fracture.

Dr Asif Iqbal said he was able to bear weight on the foot and told what exercises to perform.

Asked by John Gittins, senior coroner for North Wales East and Central, why blood-thinning me4dication had not been prescribed to reduce the risk of a clot, Dr Iqbal said that Callum was deemed to be a low risk.

“Even though he had reduced mobility and was a big lad?” asked the coroner. Reply: “Yes”.

Dr Iqbal said that even under a new risk assessment procedure introduced in January this year Callum would be classed as “low risk”.

“With the benefit of hindsight it’s surprising that there was no thromboprophlaxis (blood-thinner) prescribed but there was a rationale behind that and why it was thought there was no need for it,” said Mr Gittins.

Dr Murphy, of Shotton Lane surgery, said Callum rang on October 11 to report breathing difficulties and a pain in his chest and shoulder, but did not mention his ankle injury.

“I wasn’t aware of the fall,” he said.

From the symptoms described Dr Murphy diagnosed it as pleurisy and prescribed an inhaler, replacing an old one Callum had had for asthma.

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At the time, he said, he had not received Callum’s discharge letter from Glan Clwyd Hospital, and Dr Iqbal told the inquest it normally took about three weeks for the hospital secretaries to write them up and send them to GPs.

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, the coroner said the fall was clearly the catalyst for the tragic consequences.

He was concerned, he said, about the delay in sending out discharge letters to GPs but before deciding whether to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board would seek details of the current timeframe.

“If I feel those timeframes represent a risk to other patients it will obligatory to raise a Regulation 28 report,” he added.

After the hearing, Mrs Jones said: “I believe that Callum could have been saved if he had been able to see Dr Murphy face-to-face. I know that Covid was the reason but one can’t keep blaming Covid for everything.”