Dad died due to complications of transplant, inquest is told
A Sunderland dad, who was fighting a rare and aggressive leukemia, tragically died due to complications from a bone marrow transplant which doctors had hoped would give him a ‘long and fulfilling life’, an inquest heard.
‘Family man’ Daniel Turnbull was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the startof2020afterbeingadmitted to Sunderland Royal Hospital following two trips to its emergency department with severe back pain.
Aninquestintothe29-yearold death, held at Newcastle Coroner’s Court, heard how the ‘caring and funny’ dad was admitted to the ward to help managethepainafteroriginally being sent home with pain reliefforsuspectedsciaticathe day before.
But after spiking a fever, blood tests were taken and bone marrow biopsy confirmed Dan had leukemia.
He began chemotherapyled treatment at Sunderland Royal Hospital although this was complicated by liver dysfunction, the inquest heard.
Devastatingly, while Dan was receiving treatment, his mum Karen Turnbull, aged 52, died of incurable liver cancer just weeks after she saw Dan marry his wife, Laura, in March 2020.
Dan,whoworkedatNissan, went into remission following his second four-week course of chemotherapy – although doctors expect most patients responding well to treatment tobeinremissionfollowingthe first round the inquest heard.
Outlining Dan’s treatment, Dr Matthew, who treated the
rugby player at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: “It was unlikely his disease could be cured from chemotherapy alone.”
The inquest heard that there was a greater of 90% chanceofthecancerreturning if they followed a chemotherapy-only route – with Dr Matthew believing he would likely relapse in a matter of months.
On June 17, Dan, of Castletown, had a bone marrow transplantatNewcastle’sFreemanHospital–whichgavehim a 50% chance of a long-term cure.
But his recovery was problematicwithinfections,breathingdifficultiesandexcessfluid
and he was transferred to the intensive care unit.
Dan tragically died on July 18, before he got to meet his newborn baby boy.
Dr Erin Hurst, who treated Dan at the Freeman Hospital, provided a cause of death due to a respiratory failure due to acute respiratory distress syndrome, bone marrow transplant complicated by chest sepsis and high risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Following the evidence, assistant coroner Karin Welsh concluded that Dan died of a ‘recognised complication of a necessarymedicalprocedure’.
She said: “Dan was suffering from a sudden and aggressive leukemia. The treatment provided was appropriate but, as I’ve indicated, not without risk.
"In medicine, I often say that things are not black and white, there are shades of grey, and it falls to doctors to balance the risk of the procedure as against what they hope will be the outcome.
"In this particular case all treatment was provided with thebestofintentionsforDanin hopefullyprovidinghimwitha longandfulfillinglife,butsadly he succumbed to the toxicity whichwasknownbythemedical professionals.”
After the inquest Dan’s dad Rob said: “There wasn’t any blame to be made. It gave us the opportunity to find out the extra details and ask any questions that we had.”