Hospital bosses have apologised to the family of an autistic teenager who died of a blood clot - and revealed the changes made since her tragic death.

Karolina Lipodatenko died last year having suffered from a pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) - a blood clot in her lungs. She was just 18 years ago.

Days before her death, she was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn with shortness of breath and leg pain, which medics believed may have been an embolism.

However, Miss Lipodatenko aborted medical investigations after attempts to cannulise her and instead discharged herself.

Karolina LipodatenkoKarolina Lipodatenko (Image: Thornalley Funeral Services)

During an inquest into her death, which concluded last week, it was heard a consultant had not adequately explained the risk of not undergoing a scan to detect PE - and was unaware of her neurodivergence.

Following the hearing, bosses at the hospital have admitted her care fell short of expectations and apologised to her family.

Rebecca Martin, medical director at QEH, said: "On behalf of the trust, I offer our sincere condolences to the family of Karolina Lipodatenko regarding their devastating loss.

"We are very sorry that the care Karolina received at our hospital fell below the standards we should provide.

"We carried out an internal review of her care and an external investigation and are committed to learning all we can to implement changes to prevent such a tragedy from happening again."

Following Miss Lipodatenko's death, the hospital has brought in a host of changes to improve its approach to caring for patients with neurodivergence.

Among these, it has dedicated a bespoke ward for neurodivergent patients to create a calmer environment where their needs can be addressed.

The hospital has also employed a specialist learning difficulties nurse, whose involvement is automatically triggered when a neurodivergent patient is admitted to any department.