A woman identified as Moji Akinremi, 65, has been left unable to walk due to a brain aneurysm after she was sent home from A&E with paracetamol.
The woman from Newham has been in hospital for eight weeks, while her family question whether the brain damage would be as great had doctors acted sooner.
She first experienced back pain and headaches in early February that persisted for several weeks until the pain became unbearable. DailyMail reports.
According to Ms Akinremi’s daughter, 40-year-old Kehinde, the mother was taken to A&E by a friend and waited hours to be seen by doctors.
‘My mum has always been fit and healthy and has never suffered from underlying conditions,’ said Kehinde.
The daughter said they eventually took blood samples but the tests did not show anything, so Ms Akinremi was sent home with paracetamol and referred back to her GP for an X-ray.
‘I left work to see her as she was already home from A&E,’ Kehinde said. ‘She was just a bit stiff. That’s all I can say. She was still talking, walking well and just laughing and joking as normal.
‘We told her, ”if you’re not feeling well, do let us know”. I was concerned they didn’t do a scan at A&E. I was also worried she would have to wait a long time for a GP appointment.
According to DailyMail, Kehinde went to see her mother again two days later, and said she was still coping okay with the back pain and headaches.
By Saturday things quickly escalated.’I got another call from my mum’s friend to say they were at A&E again,’ Kehinde continued.
‘She told me the pain had got worse and my mum seemed a bit confused at this point. I went straight to the hospital and said to the doctors ”my mum came in on Tuesday, she was sent home but something is clearly wrong. She’s a 65-year-old woman, she has headaches and she’s in a lot of pain. Please can you do something?”.
‘After considerable persistence Kehinde said doctors agreed to do a CT scan.
From this they discovered Ms Akinremi had suffered a bleed on the brain. She was quickly transferred to the Royal London Hospital where further tests showed a ruptured aneurysm.
‘They think she’d been suffering with it for three to four weeks,’ Kehinde said.
Two days later Ms Akinremi underwent emergency surgery to save her life. But she ended up having two more operations due to multiple complications.
These included a secondary brain bleed, seizures and vasospasm.
She also has post-traumatic Hhydrocephalus – a condition where there is excess fluid on the brain leading to harmful pressure. She has therefore been fitted with a VP shunt in her head to drain the built-up fluid down a tube into her stomach.
The impact of the aneurysm has caused Ms Akinremi significant brain damage and disability.
‘She is still bed bound at the Royal London Hospital. She cannot walk and her arms are very shaky. In addition, she has suffered major memory loss.
‘She knows who my brothers and I are but she can’t remember what day it is and sometimes she gets very confused and doesn’t know where she is,’ Kehinde explained.
While they said the care at Royal London has been amazing, Kehinde and her two brothers wonder whether things would be different if doctors had acted sooner.
‘That five-day window between our mum’s first visit to A&E and her first surgery is critical,’ Kehinde said.
