Woman died of rare brain disease after doctors missed diagnosis

Undiagnosed: mother-of-four Marina Fagan had a family history of aneurism. Her brain disease went unrecognised for 13 days

A coroner has issued a warning about a lack of neurologists after a woman whose severe headaches went undiagnosed for 13 days died from a rare brain disease.

Marina Fagan, a 51-year-old mother of four, was discharged following a two-day stay at Whipps Cross hospital, in Leytonstone, after investigations ruled out a brain haemorrhage.

She returned to A&E the same day as her headache persisted but was advised to get her GP to refer her to an outpatient clinic. Her condition was finally diagnosed 11 days after she was first admitted to hospital. She died six days later, on October 6 last year.

Following an inquest in April, Dr Richard Brittain, an assistant coroner for Inner North London, sent a prevention of future deaths report to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs Whipps Cross.

The inquest at St Pancras coroner’s court heard that Mrs Fagan, who had a family history of aneurism, died from a neurological condition, Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome.

A neurologist who eventually treated her said an MRI scan should been requested two days after she was admitted. He said a neurologist should also have been consulted. He said there were insufficient neurologists and none was on call at the time of her admission.

The coroner concluded that although Mrs Fagan died from PRES, a condition that would not have been treatable, it could have been diagnosed earlier.

Barts Health said: “We are deeply sorry that Mrs Fagan was not seen by a neurologist sooner, although the coroner found that it is unlikely that an earlier diagnosis would have prevented her death. Along with the rest of the country we have a low number of neurologists.”

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