A teenage girl who died from a cardiac arrest caused by constipation after eight weeks without a bowel movement was failed by seven different agencies before her death.

Tragic Emily Titterington, 16, had a phobia of going to the toilet and had been known to refrain from passing stools for up to two months.

Her inquest last month heard how she had gone longer than ever without relieving herself when she collapsed at her home in St Austell, Cornwall, in February 2013.

A post-mortem revealed that Emily had a "massive extension of her large bowel" caused by a build-up of faeces, which had compressed her chest cavity and displaced her organs.

But a serious case review into her death revealed that professionals failed to act because they believed Emily's parents had "fabricated" or "induced" her illness.

Nothing was done to help the teenager's condition despite seven agencies being involved with her in the three years before she collapsed.

Her parents felt experts did not understand her issues, the review said, while agencies across the country are being urged to learn from the case.

It accused experts of not listening properly to Emily, meaning "the voice of the child was not heard or accessible" and no professional knew what Emily herself "thought would help her most in life".

Emily, who was home educated, lived in a rural area with her parents in a "fixed, unchallenged family dynamic" that was "difficult" to work with, according to the review.

Chairman of Cornwall's Safeguarding Children Board (SCB), John Clements, said: "The hypothesis is the mother had her own emotional difficulties, and as a consequence whatever relationship that existed with her daughter caused a number of conditions within her daughter.

"The is no suggestion this was deliberate and we don't really understand the full circumstances".

Emily was seen by a number of medical professionals in the lead up to her death, but had refused to go to hospital.

The serious case review found there was a lack of continuity across the healthcare system and "no clear clinical leader to grip her chronic health problem".

Mr Clements said a number of recommendations had been made, including working to make sure a vulnerable child's voice is heard.

"The last thing we ever want is for anything like this to happen again," he said.

During Emily's inquest in Truro, Home Office pathologist Dr Amanda Jeffery described the findings as "like nothing I've ever seen before."

At the end of the three day hearing, the coroner Dr Emma Carlyon ruled that her death was entirely preventable.

Delivering a narrative verdict, she said: "I accept the opinion that this was a preventable death.

"The facts are Emily did not have the treatment she needed and a 16-year-old girl should not die of constipation.

"There was something wrong with the patient, parent, doctor triangle which meant she did not get the care she needed."