A young woman who overdosed on diet pills died after A&E staff ‘did nothing’, her heartbroken parents claimed.
Bethany Shipsey, 21, told paramedics she had taken the Dinitrophenol tablets known as DNP which she had bought on the internet.
But she was not seen as a priority, her parents claimed, even though her dad Doug, 52, said he pleaded with a nurse to treat her as he warned how dangerous they could be.
She was taken to a resuscitation room at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, but was moved to make way for others, and only had a tracheotomy for respiratory arrest when it was too late.
Bethany died on February 15 this year.
She had taken the pills while at home on leave from a psychiatric ward, after her mental health suffered from being in a severely abusive relationship.
Bethany’s parents claim that it took one-and-a-half hours before a doctor on the A&E ward saw her and when they did she was given a saline drip and anti-sickness medication.Former boyfriend Barry Finch, 23, of Dines Green, was convicted of six counts of rape and was jailed for six years last August.
Her heart was 190 beats per minute, and her breathing was double the normal rate.
DNP diet drug kills
The substance, 2,4-Dinitrophenol, has been linked to a number of recent deaths.
It affects the body by speeding up the metabolism – as though your muscles are forced to exercise but are not able to stop.
People who take it can experience weight loss along with fatigue, sweating, overheating and death.
The drug is not new, and indeed has been used for over a century – it was used by the French to make explosives in WWI, but led to workers dying due to the side effects.
Her parents Doug, 52, and Carole, 57, from Worcester, said the hospital was ‘overwhelmed’ with patients so didn’t give their daughter the care she needed.
Mr and Mrs Shipsey say they attempted to use cold water packs and a fan to cool her down, but she fell into a cardiac arrest around three-and-a-half hours after admission.
Mrs Shipsey, who was a nurse for 39 years, said: ‘Beth looked at me and just called my name.
‘That was the last time she actually spoke and she just called ‘mum, mum, mum’.
‘I’m struggling to even believe it myself that they [the hospital] did nothing. It was inadequate care, lack of dignity.
‘There was no communication with the parents until Beth had a cardiac arrest.
‘She was not seen as a priority.
‘We want answers for Beth.’
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, which runs the hospital, had been told by the Care Quality Commission that it needed to make ‘significant improvements’ days earlier.
Bethany had spent 42 weeks in the hospital over an 18-month period from April 2015 after previous overdoses and mental health issues.
A spokesperson for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which has been in special measures since December 2015, said: ‘This is a tragic case and our condolences are with the family.
‘As is common practice with incidents of this nature, we have undertaken a full internal review of this case.
‘At this point the Trust cannot comment any further until after the Coroner’s inquest.’‘The results of this have been shared with the family and we have since met with them to answer their questions.
A five-day inquest into the tragic death is set to begin on January 8 next year.
