Young mum died after missing dialysis
Dec 22 2010 by Laurie Stocks-Moore, Ellesmere Port Pioneer
A YOUNG single mother from Great Sutton died at the age of 38 after regularly failing to turn up for life-saving dialysis appointments.
Corlette Bernadette Glenda Winona Grimes was found by her twin sister on May 10, 2008, after she smashed the window of her Ecclestone Avenue home.
At 11, Corlette had been diagnosed with the auto-immune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
It had led to hypertension and kidney failure in later life, among a catalogue of other illnesses.
Her sister Corline Bernadice Glenys Wilomena Grimes, 40, of Festival Road, Ellesmere Port left the inquest after hearing from a doctor that her sister ‘almost certainly did not suffer’ at the end.
Corline said: “She’d go through phases of being quite well. Only towards the end when she had to do dialysis she started to go down.”
In a statement given by her GP at Old Hall surgery, Ellesmere Port, Dr Martyn Phipps, he said: “Her compliance with treatment was poor, despite repeated warnings this was potentially fatally dangerous.”
Miss Grimes also discharged herself from hospital against medical advice.
After being diagnosed with kidney failure four years ago, Miss Grimes was asked to attend dialysis treatment for a minumum of four hours, three times a week. but even after altering appointments to fit around her, Miss Grimes continued to miss them.
She covered up the missed appointments by telling family she had been. She was eventually fitted with a tube to enable her to undergo dialysis at home, but as that too went unused she suffered complications from it.
Consultant Nephrologist, Dr Peter McClelland, from the Countess of Chester said: “Dialysis is a horrible treatment. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
“But those people who embark on it usually see it has an end point, to make it worthwhile entering those treatments. Most people recognise it is a means to an end.”
Coroner Janet Napier gave a verdict of death by natural causes – giving chronic renal failure as the main cause.
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