Woman died from blood clots in lung days after a diagnosis of panic attack
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A WOMAN with shortness of breath and palpitations died from lung blood clots days after being discharged with a panic attack diagnosis, an inquest heard.
Katie Doyle, 27, a recruitment executive, passed away at Beaumont Hospital on January 4, 2021, after suffering a pulmonary embolism.
Dublin District Coroner’s Court yesterday heard she had attended the hospital’s emergency department four days earlier on New Year’s Eve with complaints of heart palpitations and a shortness of breath but had been discharged on the same date after a doctor believed her symptoms were caused by a panic attack.
Recording a verdict of medical misadventure, coroner Clare Keane said the hospital’s protocol of carrying out a certain type of blood test on patients suspected of possibly having a pulmonary embolism had not been followed in Ms Doyle’s case.
The deceased’s mother, Susan Doyle, told the hearing her daughter had no history of ever suffering panic attacks. She said Katie had complained on New Year’s Eve she had heart palpitations and difficulty breathing and had been referred to Beaumont Hospital by her GP.
The inquest heard she was discharged from the emergency department with a bag which she was advised to blow into if she experienced a similar event again.
Ms Doyle recalled asking her daughter if she was happy to go home and outlined how Katie, from Kelly Park, Lusk, Co Dublin, was always happy to follow the advice of doctors.
Ms Doyle told the coroner how she found Katie collapsed on the floor next to her bed on January 3, 2021, after hearing a bang coming from her room. She recalled how the last words her daughter spoke to her were: “I’m scared.”
The inquest heard that the deceased was showing no signs of life by the time an ambulance crew arrived at her home and she was pronounced dead the following day in Beaumont after efforts to resuscitate her failed. In reply to questions from her counsel, Liam Bell BL, Ms Doyle said her daughter was “very quiet but a rottweiler”.
“She didn’t have red hair for nothing,” she laughed, adding that she was also “very loving and very kind”.
Ms Doyle said her daughter, who was studying for a master’s degree in human resource management, “wanted to help people in their jobs – she wanted to make a difference”.
Jonathan Oettle, a senior house officer who examined Ms Doyle in Beaumont, said the only sign she had shown of a possible pulmonary embolism
She looked to me like a well patient with no life threatening condition JONATHAN OETTLE
was a fast heartbeat. He acknowledged her pulse was “slightly faster than expected” but believed it could be attributed to the “white coat” effect of being examined by a doctor.
He was happy to discharge her on the basis of his clinical exam and medical history with the advice she should return to the hospital if her condition deteriorated.
Dr Oettle accepted the hospital’s policy was to carry out a D-dimer blood test for patients suspected of a pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. He said: “She was comfortable. She looked to me like a well patient and did not seem to me to have any severe or life-threatening condition.”
A consultant in emergency medicine at Beaumont, Peadar Gilligan, confirmed the hospital’s protocol was for a D-dimer test to be performed for patients assessed as being at a low risk of having a pulmonary embolism if a doctor was “clinically concerned”.
Dr Gilligan explained medical records about Ms Doyle were relatively short because of the volume and nature of work in the ED as a result of
Covid-19 restrictions. He also said there was “a broad range of possibilities” about what was causing the patient to be unwell.
Solicitor for Beaumont Hospital, Jane O’neill, informed the inquest that no internal review had been carried out into the circumstances of Ms Doyle’s death.
Ms O’neill claimed an appropriate verdict in the case would be death due to natural causes.
However, Mr Bell claimed a relatively straightforward blood test had not been used on Ms Doyle. Outlining her ruling, the coroner said the evidence showed the D-dimer test hadn’t been conducted.
Dr Keane said it would probably have been positive and would have led to the patient being sent for a CT pulmonary angiogram which she branded “the gold standard” method for diagnosing the condition
Her mother’s solicitor, Dermot Mcnamara, said it was his client’s intention to initiate High Court proceedings against Beaumont as a result of the inquest’s verdict.