Twin with sepsis died ... after she took NHS advice to avoid A&E
AN 18-year-old twin who died after contracting sepsis delayed going to A&E because of warnings that people should stay away if they have a cold or flu.
The devastated family of Melissa Whiteley, an engineering student, yesterday said it was ‘so frustrating’ that they followed NHS advice thinking ‘it was the right thing to do’.
Melissa was eventually admitted to hospital on Christmas Day six hours after her family became so worried that they drove her to A&E. The teenager had suffered from a persistent cough for several weeks and came down with flu-like symptoms in the days before Christmas.
But her condition deteriorated and in hospital she was diagnosed with flu, pneumonia, sepsis and a fungal infection and was placed in an induced coma.
She died surrounded by her family on January 27 at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester after being transferred there from Royal Stoke University Hospital. Her mother Sharon, 53, said: ‘We read all the warnings about not coming to hospital if you have a cold or the flu and we just followed them.
‘We thought it was the right thing to do. It’s so frustrating we delayed taking her in because of that. With conditions like sepsis, you need treatment as quickly as possible.
‘I cannot fault the medical staff who looked after her. They did their best and at the end they were crying too after they got to know how wonderful she was.’
Sepsis, known as the ‘silent killer’, develops when an infection sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. It is the leading cause of avoidable deaths in the UK, killing at least 44,000 people a year.
Melissa’s twin Megan said yesterday that her sister’s death had left her ‘completely lost’. ‘It’s broken me,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what I’ll do without her. We did everything together and that’s now been taken away from me. She was always able to make us laugh and lift everyone’s spirits.’
The sisters, from Stoke- on-Trent, were studying engineering together at nearby Newcastle-under-Lyme College.
Her family said Melissa died following the ‘best year of her life’ in which she turned 18, passed her driving test and bought a car.
Her father Mark, 50, an HGV driver, said: ‘We thought she had a cold that had turned into the flu. She had a bad chesty cough and felt ill, and we discussed taking her to the hospital.
‘However, we had read all the things about not turning up if you think you have flu because you can make problems at A&E worse, so we kept her at home.
‘We just wish she had been seen sooner at A&E. I would like people not to hesitate in going to A&E, and everyone needs to be more aware of flu symptoms and sepsis.’
NHS England has been behind campaigns encouraging people to stay away from A&E unless it is an emergency, especially over busy periods like Christmas, encouraging people to seek help from a pharmacist, GP or 111.
The NHS Choices website says flu can often be treated ‘without seeing your GP’ and suggests seeing a pharmacist for advice.
But it recommends calling NHS 111 or seeing a GP if symptoms do not improve after seven days, or if the sufferer is more vulnerable.
An NHS spokesman said yesterday: ‘While the NHS is offering extra options for advice when people feel unwell, the NHS would never ask people who need to do so not to go to A&E. Our public information is about helping people know about the full range of services available, from GP practices to NHS 111, which are often able to provide advice and treatment more quickly than A&E.’
‘I cannot fault the medical staff’