WOMAN DIED AFTER TAKING DRUG FOR DIABETES

From the archive, first published Wednesday 26th Oct 2005.

A MIDDLEWICH woman died after suffering a rare reaction to a common drug given to people with diabetes.

An inquest into the death of Joyce Fletcher, who died on August 9, 2004, aged 66, revealed that she died of liver failure after taking a statin drug, atorvastatin, to lower cholesterol and protect against heart disease.

Mrs Fletcher, of Darlington Street, stopped taking the drug after little more than three months because it made her feel unwell but just a month later, on July 9, she was rushed to Leighton Hospital with jaundice.

The coroner, Dr Janet Napier, recorded the verdict that Mrs Fletcher died from an unusual reaction to a necessary drug.

She said: "Mrs Fletcher is one of those rare people and the effect of this drug caused her to have liver failure which got worse and worse, despite supportive measures."

She added: "Unfortunately nothing could be done to save her life."

Mrs Fletcher's family, who were present at the inquest, said they were not happy with her treatment at the hospital and had expected her to have a biopsy, which never took place.

Son Gary said: "She was just put on a drip, didn't have the biopsy and we were never told why.

"She was going down and down and within the first fortnight she was semi-comatose - there was no reaction from her whatsoever.

"All we were told was to expect the worst - they couldn't give us any more information because the biopsy hadn't been done."

Daughter Janice Hassall said: "I believe that she was left to die."

Dr Ian London, from Leighton Hospital, was present at the inquest and said that the purpose of the biopsy would have been to provide a concrete diagnosis but would not have altered her treatment in any way.

He said the biopsy had not been carried out because Mrs Fletcher was too ill.

Dr Napier said: "I'm very sorry about the apparent lack of communication at the time.

"It's a terrible thing to have a relative ill and it helps us cope if we're able to know what's going on. It seems they were just hoping things weren't as bad."

She added: "Perhaps lessons should be learned."

Speaking after the inquest, husband Brian Fletcher said that it had really helped the family to come to terms with their grief.

He said: "It's 14 months since she died - the inquest enabled us to draw a line under it and get on with our lives."

He said that it had answered a lot of the questions that they had been left with, including the issue of Mrs Fletcher's treatment in hospital.

He said: "It was just a lack of communication, as the coroner politely put it - it wasn't the nurses, they can only tell you what the doctors tell them.

"Dr London told us that the liver is a complicated organ and can regenerate - he was working on the assumption that where there's life there's hope and that's why they didn't tell us, but it would have been better if they told us because we just saw her deteriorate."

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