Doctors ‘blind’ in Bills’ case

Junior doctors treating Heather Bills the night of her catastrophic deterioration were “inattentionally blind” to the “gorilla” killing her, a coroner’s inquest has heard.

Bills, 64, died at Middlemore Hospital on January 2, 2013, six weeks after she suffered burns to 35 per cent of her body in a fire at her home.

It was later found she suffered a suspicious and massive hypoglycaemia-related cerebral injury.

Police suspected three medical workers of administering a fatal dose of insulin to Bills on the night of December 26, 2012.

Bills had articulated suicidal thoughts and offered nurses cash to help her die, the inquest heard earlier.

Dr Ross Boswell, a chemical pathologist and head of Middlemore’s laboratory, yesterday said the “junior” doctors treating Bills that night suffered from “inattentional blindness”.

He said they failed to diagnose Bills’ low blood sugar earlier because they were focusing on respiratory problems and had no reason to suspect it was an issue after a “normal” blood glucose reading.

Bills’ primary nurse, Harmeet Sokhi, a police suspect, said she did a blood sugar test with a glucometer which showed a 6.4 mmol/L reading.

But investigators found no evidence of Sokhi’s reading.

Boswell described the insulin as a “gorilla” in Bills’ system, hidden among several other red flags.

“A gorilla walking through a group of basketballers is a lot more conspicuous than one more red result amongst 13 or 14 more red results.”

He believed “on the balance of probabilities” the insulin was injected.