Antiques Roadshow expert died after being held down in panic attack over new baby
AN Antiques Roadshow expert suffering from postnatal psychosis died after she was restrained during a panic attack, an inquest heard.
Alice Gibson-Watt, who had given birth five weeks earlier, was forcibly held down by five paramedics and police officers as she fought like a ‘tigress’.
The Sotheby’s jewellery expert suffered a ruptured liver and internal bleeding and died on November 20, 2012, a week later.
The 34-year-old gave birth to Chiara, her first daughter with husband Anthony, in October 2012. Mr Gibson-Watt said she was ‘enthralled by motherhood’, but she suffered from post-natal psychosis which can cause hallucinations and paranoia.
He told West London coroner’s court his wife had a panic attack at their home in Fulham, southwest London, on November 13, shouting that Chiara was ‘unsafe’ and ‘dead’.
Mr Gibson-Watt added: ‘There had been a lot of anxiety. She was eating a lot, double the normal amount … We were just settling down for the night in bed.
‘Then she wailed and was very hot and screaming. She was on all fours in the bed and crawling around.’
He called an ambulance after Mrs Gibson-Watt began shouting: ‘My baby’s dead.’ He also called her mother, Miranda Phillimore, daughter of the 4th Baron Phillimore. Mr GibsonWatt told the inquest: ‘I started to reason with Alice that Chiara was absolutely fine … But she did get past me and she picked her up and was shaking her somewhat. It was very distressing.’
The husband, who was asked if there had been any altercation inside the house, added: ‘She kicked out at me in the bedroom. She was holding our daughter and kicking at me.’
He told the court he could not recall if there was any way his wife could have injured her upper abdomen and liver while inside the house. She may have hit herself on the doorframe as she rushed to get into the baby’s bedroom, he said. Mrs Gibson-Watt then went downstairs and tried to get out to the street but the front door was bolted.
Paramedics arrived shortly after and took Chiara while Mrs Gibson-Watt was taken inside the ambulance.
In a statement, Mrs Phillimore said her daughter was ‘as wild as a tigress’ in the ambulance, adding: ‘She was alarmingly strapped down with five people holding her down … She knew who I was but she was very anxious about her baby. The police and the ambulance staff were holding her down. Each person was holding a leg or an arm.’
Mrs Gibson-Watt was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and later admitted to a mental health unit at the West Middlesex University Hospital as a voluntary patient.
Coroner Sarah OrmondWalshe said: ‘She then had another event on the 15th of November 2012, on the ward.
‘She was taken to a seclusion room for a few days and then went back to her bed on the ward. Then she suffered a cardiac arrest and she was taken to the intensive care unit.
‘It was while she was there it was decided she needed to go to theatre for urgent surgery and there was a tear found on her liver. It caused a large bleed in her tummy and she was transferred to intensive care at King’s College Hospital on full life support. It was there she died on 20th November 2012.’
Mr Gibson-Watt told the inquest: ‘Neither Alice or I were at all aware of postpartum psychosis. Up to the evening of her admission to hospital I was concerned about post-natal depression … that’s why I organised a GP appointment on the day everything started to go wrong.
‘What happened that first night was deeply traumatic and wholly unlike my dear wife Alice … One day I will tell our daughter more about her wonderful mother. I just hope finally we get as close as possible to the truth of her passing.’
The inquest, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.
‘Deeply traumatic’