Nurse with bad back kills herself by mistake after mixing six drugs
AN NHS nurse with a bad back and anxiety accidentally killed herself after mixing six different types of medication with a large dose of sleeping pills.
Diane Brown suffered a ‘toxic reaction’ from combining the over-the-counter and prescription drugs and anti-insomnia tablet Nytol, an inquest heard.
The mother of three had been given strong painkillers to deal with severe pain caused by a slipped disc.
She was also prescribed medication for anxiety and depression following post-natal depression, and was later advised by her pharmacist to take over-the- counter sleeping pills.
The 44-year-old’s fatal overdose happened after she returned home from a night shift at Rochdale Infirmary, Greater Manchester, on November 29 last year. Mrs Brown was found dead after collapsing on her kitchen floor at home in Royton, near Oldham. Police said she was surrounded by empty tablet packets and a medicine cupboard was open.
The coroner questioned whether Mrs Brown had been given too much medication – but doctors insisted the levels prescribed never went above national guidelines.
The urgent care nurse was described as ‘ relatively fit and healthy’ but was seen regularly by Royton and Crompton Family Practice for chronic back pain.
At the time of her death, she was using oxycodone, an opioid drug, for pain relief, pregabalin to treat anxiety, and fluoxetine for depression. She had also been given a ‘top-up’ of diazepam for pain relief. Antibiotic flucloxacillin and antihistamine hydroxyzine were also issued in the months before her death. Toxicologist Dr Julie Evans said she was concerned about the amount of Nytol in Mrs Brown’s system. She said: ‘ Diphenhydramine, also known as Nytol, was found at 2.4 milligrams per litre of blood; people taking it therapeutically would not usually have more than 0.1 milligrams per litre.’
Mrs Brown’s GP, Dr Salim Mohammad, said relatives had contacted him in April 2014 with concerns about her medication usage and fears about addiction.
But he said: ‘There was a report from family members that gave suspicion to Diane getting medication from outside the surgery but Diane denied this.
‘Her response to her family’s concerns was that they were mistaken. I asked her if she was addicted to any of her prescribed medication; she did not say yes, but she did not say no. She never openly admitted to me that she had an addiction problem.’
When asked if Mrs Brown was being prescribed too much medication, Dr Mohammad said: ‘The additional amount of medication prescribed never went over the guidelines.’ But he added that he ‘did not know’ how she had accessed chlordiazepoxide, a prescriptiononly drug used to treat anxiety, which was also present in toxicology tests.
Mrs Brown’s husband David told the hearing in Heywood: ‘I am sure and the family are sure that Diane would not take too much medication on purpose.
‘She was looking at wedding dresses with my daughter, she was looking to the future.
‘I think she must have just taken too many sleeping tablets.’
Recording a verdict of death by misadventure, coroner Lisa Hashmi said: ‘Given her knowledge of medication I am satisfied that she would have known the risk and her tolerance to the medication.
‘The levels of drugs in her system were not overly high, it seems to have been [the] mix of drugs.’
‘I asked her if she was addicted’