The final hours of a bright young graduate’s life unfolded not inside a hospital ward — but in a crowded corridor, beneath fluorescent lights, with staff allegedly believing she was simply suffering from anxiety.

Now, the heartbreaking death of 24-year-old Clarissa Street has triggered disturbing questions about whether crucial warning signs were overlooked during the final moments before she collapsed forever.

Described by loved ones as “creative”, “outgoing” and deeply loved by everyone around her, Clarissa had built a promising future for herself after graduating from the University of Manchester with a Sociology degree and earning the prestigious Dean’s Award for her dissertation. Friends say she lit up every room she entered, adored concerts and travelling, and possessed the kind of magnetic personality that naturally drew people toward her.

But on the night of August 13, 2024, her world — and her family’s — began to unravel in devastating fashion.

An inquest heard this week that Clarissa had been feeling increasingly unwell in the days leading up to her death. She reportedly struggled to eat or drink properly, found herself unable to sleep, and experienced dizzy spells severe enough to cause her to pass out repeatedly at home in Castleton, Rochdale.

As her condition worsened, her boyfriend eventually called emergency services in panic.

By the time paramedics arrived, Clarissa was frightened, breathless and fading in and out of consciousness. Yet evidence presented before Rochdale Coroner’s Court revealed that during the handover process, concerns were allegedly raised that the young woman may have simply been “overreacting” or suffering from a panic attack.

What happened next has become the focus of intense scrutiny.

After arriving at Royal Oldham Hospital late that evening, Clarissa was assessed by triage staff while visibly struggling to breathe. The inquest heard that despite her alarming symptoms — including dangerously low oxygen levels and a racing heart rate — she was allegedly fitted with an oxygen mask that was not connected to oxygen at all.

The nurse involved later admitted she “didn’t know” why she had used the disconnected mask, acknowledging that she should not have done so.

Yet despite the startling revelation, the court heard the mask was allegedly used in an attempt to “regulate” Clarissa’s breathing while staff believed she was hyperventilating.

In one of the most haunting details to emerge from the hearing, Clarissa then spent roughly an hour lying in a hospital corridor instead of receiving immediate higher-level treatment.

As other patients and medical staff moved around her, the 24-year-old reportedly remained in visible distress.

The inquest heard that Staff Nurse Michelle Neale ordered tests including an ECG, blood work and venous blood gas examinations after Clarissa arrived at A&E. However, despite signs that something far more serious may have been happening inside her body, Clarissa was not immediately moved into a cubicle for urgent medical care.

Instead, according to evidence presented in court, a more senior nurse allegedly remarked that because Clarissa was “young”, staff would simply “keep an eye on her”.

That single sentence now hangs heavily over the case.

Ms Neale told the hearing she remembered speaking to Clarissa while she was in the corridor and said the young woman appeared capable of communicating in full sentences.

She recalled Clarissa speaking about a recent holiday to the Canary Islands, describing her as responsive and conversational despite her deteriorating physical condition.

“I remember her coming in,” the nurse said during testimony.

“She could talk to me in full sentences.”

The nurse also admitted she returned later to ask Clarissa whether the disconnected oxygen mask had helped her breathing — and claimed the young woman responded that it had.

According to the evidence heard in court, staff initially intended to place Clarissa on fluids before reassessing whether she could later be transferred to an urgent treatment centre instead of remaining in emergency care.

But behind the scenes, her condition was rapidly spiralling toward catastrophe.

Hours later, after finally being transferred for higher-level treatment and assessed by a doctor, Clarissa deteriorated dramatically.

Despite desperate efforts, she died in the early hours of August 14.

The cause of death was later identified as pulmonary embolism against a background of fatty liver disease.

A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot blocks arteries in the lungs, restricting oxygen flow and placing immense strain on the heart. The condition can turn fatal within minutes if not diagnosed and treated quickly.

The tragedy carried even greater weight because Clarissa had previously suffered a pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis back in 2017.

The inquest heard she had taken blood-thinning medication intermittently over the years following that earlier incident. However, doctors concluded at the time that the embolism had been “provoked” — meaning triggered by a temporary risk factor rather than an ongoing medical condition.

Because of that assessment, national guidelines reportedly did not require her to remain on long-term anticoagulant medication.

Experts told the hearing there had also been no obligation to refer Clarissa to haematology specialists in 2017.

Still, the inquest heard that with hindsight, further testing or specialist referrals “might” have uncovered an underlying condition that contributed to her later death.

Even so, medical evidence presented to the court stated it could not definitively be said that the embolism which killed Clarissa in 2024 was directly connected to the earlier clotting episode seven years before.

For Clarissa’s grieving family, however, the unanswered questions extend far beyond medical terminology.

To them, the horrifying image of a critically ill young woman left waiting in a hospital corridor has become impossible to erase.

Loved ones described Clarissa as fiercely intelligent, warm-hearted and endlessly sociable — someone whose future appeared filled with possibility only months before her sudden death.

Friends say she loved live music, travelling and being surrounded by people. Her academic success at university reflected both ambition and determination, qualities those closest to her say defined her entire personality.

Now, instead of celebrating milestones and planning her future, her family have spent days sitting through painful courtroom testimony reconstructing her final hours piece by piece.

The inquest also cast an uncomfortable spotlight on wider pressures facing emergency departments across Britain, where overcrowding, staff shortages and corridor treatment have increasingly become part of everyday NHS reality.

Images of patients waiting for hours on trolleys in hallways have become disturbingly common across hospitals nationwide. Critics argue such scenes create dangerous conditions where life-threatening illnesses can be missed, delayed or mistaken for less serious conditions.

Clarissa’s case threatens to become one of the most emotionally charged examples yet.

Particularly troubling for many observers is the suggestion that assumptions surrounding anxiety and panic attacks may have shaped how her symptoms were initially perceived.

Shortness of breath, dizziness and chest discomfort can all appear during panic attacks — but they are also classic warning signs of pulmonary embolism.

For bereaved relatives listening in court, the possibility that a fatal blood clot may have been mistaken for anxiety has only intensified the anguish surrounding Clarissa’s death.

As evidence continued this week, legal representatives carefully examined the decisions made during the crucial window between Clarissa arriving at hospital and her eventual collapse.

Attention focused not only on the disconnected oxygen mask, but also on why a patient with low oxygen saturation and tachycardia remained in a corridor environment rather than receiving immediate escalation.

Witnesses were repeatedly asked whether opportunities had been missed.

Some answers appeared to deepen the sense of unease already surrounding the case.

At one stage, Ms Neale admitted that under normal circumstances she might have challenged the decision to leave Clarissa in the corridor. However, because the young woman remained able to speak coherently, the urgency of the situation may not have appeared obvious in that moment.

Yet pulmonary embolisms are notoriously deceptive.

Patients can sometimes appear relatively stable moments before sudden collapse. Medical experts have long warned that younger patients, particularly women, can have serious symptoms dismissed or underestimated because they do not initially “look” critically ill.

That reality now forms a painful backdrop to Clarissa’s final night alive.

As the three-day inquest continues, her family are still searching for clarity about how an ambitious 24-year-old graduate walked into hospital alive — only to die hours later after waiting in a corridor.

Outside court, the emotional toll has been immense.

Every testimony has reopened devastating memories of the final phone calls, the ambulance ride, the hope that hospital staff would somehow save her.

Instead, the hearing has revealed a timeline filled with moments that now appear agonising in hindsight.

A young woman gasping for breath.

An oxygen mask with no oxygen.

A corridor instead of a treatment room.

A suggestion that she was panicking.

And then silence.

The inquest at Rochdale Coroner’s Court is expected to conclude on Friday, with a coroner set to determine whether any failings contributed to Clarissa’s death and whether lessons must now be learned from the tragedy.

But whatever conclusion is ultimately reached, one fact remains impossible to escape.

A talented young woman with her entire future ahead of her entered hospital seeking help — and never came home again.