Mother dies from rare diabetic condition (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Mother dies from rare diabetic condition

1:57pm Friday 5th September 2008

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A YOUNG mother died from brain swelling after a mix-up at the QEII Hospital led to a four-hour delay in vital treatment.

Thirty-year-old physiotherapist Rebecca Worsley, from Blakemere Road in Welwyn Garden City, died on November 11 last year, only four months after giving birth, Hatfield Coroner's Court heard last week.

Five days before her death she had visited her GP, Doctor Michael Rule, at the Peartree Surgery in Welwyn Garden City, suffering from excessive thirst and rapid weight loss.

Tests found glucose in her urine, signalling diabetes.

“The next morning I received a telephone call from Mr Worsley saying that Rebecca had been vomiting overnight and that her condition had deteriorated. I told him to take her to hospital immediately,” Dr Rule told the inquest.

He phoned the QEII and then faxed a letter to the Clinical Decisions Unit to warn them of her condition.

But the nurse who examined her on arrival at casualty at 10.55am was unaware of Dr Rule 's letter.

Unfortunately, owing to exceptional demand on the casualty department the consultant Sigmund Wilkey did not see Mrs Worsley until 1.30pm when he carried out more tests.

It wasn’t until later that same afternoon that another doctor told Mr Wilkey about Dr Rule’s letter. Mr Wilkey assumed other staff would take over Mrs Worsley's care.

After tests had revealed high blood sugar from lack of insulin, treatment began at about 3pm.

Coroner Edward Thomas said: “The consultant would have initiated treatment earlier if he believed the medics were not going to act.”

But her condition rapidly deteriorated and a CT scan revealed brain swelling, which killed her four days later.

Diabetics consultant Ken Darzy said that brain swelling from a diabetic condition was extremely rare, and it would have been impossible to predict.

“Why it occurred in Rebecca is unknown. The danger of DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis) is that it is a newly diagnosed diabetes. It can have a very fast onset so the earlier it can be diagnosed and then treated the better it is for the patient.”

Mr Thomas returned a narrative verdict in which he said Mrs Worsley died from raised skull pressure and cerebral oedema, caused by diabetic ketoacidosis.

He said: “I can’t imagine how difficult this must be for Rebecca’s family.”

“She was a lovely girl who will be greatly missed.”

Mr Thomas said he would write to national healthcare bosses to flag up the importance of recognising the early symptoms of diabetes to ensure rapid treatment.

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