Aspiring nurse’s tragic death after weight-loss surgery sparked agony
WOMAN SELF-MEDICATED AFTER OPERATION LEFT HER IN PAIN
AN aspiring nurse sadly died after self-medicating with painkillers to battle the pains and trauma of weight-loss surgery, an inquest heard.
Alison Marie Young, 39, died at Hull Royal Infirmary on November 10, 2019, after the family’s heartbreaking decision to turn off her life support.
Hull Coroners’ Court heard how Ms Young had begun self-medicating with her husband’s pain relief medication, taking up to 30 tablets a week and drinking up to six bottles of wine a day, after having gastric bypass surgery.
Alison, originally from Ashfield in Sutton, met her husband on an online dating website in 2002 and shortly after moved to Hull, to begin studies in mental health nursing.
She was left with abdominal pain for the rest of her life after a gastric bypass surgery in 2013, which saw her drop from “30st to just 15st in a very short time”, according to her husband.
That surgery, combined with losing sight in one eye, resulted in a diagnosis of depression.
It was then that the pair decided to move into to a static caravan in Withernsea with the hopes that it would help with Alison’s depression.
But over the next few weeks, Alison’s wine intake went up to six bottles per night and she started to self-medicate surgery pains with her husband’s prescription pain killers.
Her husband admitted in a statement to the court: “I allowed her access to them as I could not see her in pain.”
Two weeks before her death, Alison made the decision to stop drinking as it was “all getting too much”. Her husband said she went completely “cold turkey” on her habits.
On Saturday, November 9, at around 6pm, Alison began to complain of breathing difficulties. Her husband decided to phone an ambulance after she began to go in and out of consciousness.
Paramedics arrived at their home in Withernsea at 6.15pm, where it was agreed that Alison needed “immediate attention” at Hull Royal Infirmary, due to the severity of her condition.
Dr Victoria Jowett, a consultant clinician at Hull Royal Infirmary, said that on Alison’s arrival at Hull Royal Infirmary, she suffered a multi organ failure.
She died
“a pain-free and
dignified death with family by her side”, according to Dr Jowett.
Speaking of Alison, her half-sister told the court: “She liked make-up and doing her hair” but didn’t have many hobbies because she was a hard worker, “always working ten to 12-hour shifts”.
She said Alison “had been teetotal her whole life until her depression” and that “she was a well-to-do woman” with a loving and caring family.
The coroner concluded that Alison’s death was due to a combination of drugs and alcohol.