Dying woman told to 'take laxatives'
Updated on 12 April 2007
A woman whose partner frantically phoned an NHS call centre and was told to give her laxatives for crippling stomach pains, was failed by the NHS, a coroner has found.
Alison Christian died of a perforated ulcer two days before Christmas 2005 at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield after her partner Mitchell Bower frantically rang an out-of-hours NHS call centre for help but was told to give her laxatives.
The inquest at the Bio-Medical Legal Centre in Sheffield found that the mother-of-four's condition was not discovered "until she was beyond help".
The 36-year-old did visit a hospital and was diagnosed with a chest infection but returned the next day with significant abdominal pain. However, her "abdomen was not examined, nor was a blood pressure taken."
Ms Christian's condition worsened and by the afternoon of December 22 she and her partner, Mitchell Bower, "could take no more" and rang the call centre which should have resulted in a visit by a doctor within the hour, the coroner said.
The GP was then phoned at lunchtime on December 23. The doctor attended promptly and admitted Ms Christian to hospital, where she died shortly after.
Christopher Dorries, Coroner for South Yorkshire West, said: "In both cases there is a clear and direct causal connection with the death in that (on the balance of probabilities) Ms Christian would have survived had her condition been acted upon at either of those times."
He recorded the medical cause of death as peritonitis with a perforated duodenal ulcer and said: "This was not recognised until she was beyond help.
"The conclusion as to the death is that Alison Christian died from natural causes contributed to by neglect."
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