Mother-of-three dies from brain haemorrhage after 'NHS sent her home with headache pills'

Despite repeated approaches

A mother died from a brain haemorrhage just days after being sent home from hospital with headache pills, it has emerged. Lorraine King, 44, was told twice she had whiplash from a recent minor road accident in which her car was rammed by a scrap metal lorry. Miss King walked away from the crash without a scratch, wrongly believing she had not been hurt.

But she developed persistent headaches and within days she saw her GP, who apparently told her to take paracetamol and get some rest. By September 3, nearly three weeks after the crash, she grew so drowsy that she could barely move, and her eldest daughter Hannah called 999. Paramedics who visited her at home reportedly said she was suffering from whiplash and dehydration, and prescribed painkillers.

Her condition deteriorated further and she went to A&E, where she was again diagnosed with whiplash. On September 9, her partner Tim Brooks took her back to the GP who sent her to Barnet Hospital for tests. An MRI scan revealed a blood vessel was bleeding into her brain and within 24 hours she slipped into a coma - before surgeons could operate. She was declared brain-dead the following day.

Miss King, of North Finchley, North London, was a single mother and her death leaves Hannah, 18, to raise her autistic brother Adam, 16, and her younger half- sister, Terri, 14. Hannah said: 'If doctors had taken her seriously and admitted her to hospital straight away I'm sure she would be with us now. 'I don't understand how so many trained professionals can apparently miss obvious signs of a serious trauma to the head.'

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a brain haemorrhage, which it is understood was caused by the car accident. Hannah, who was close to completing a childcare course, has now postponed her studies. She said: 'I've vowed to care for Adam for as long as there is breath in my body and for Terri until she leaves the nest. But it's not easy. 'Adam doesn't sleep well. He doesn't know mum is dead yet. 'His teachers say he needs to be told in a certain way.'

She is now considering legal action against Barnet Hospital and the London Ambulance Service. A spokesman for Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust declined to comment on the case. The Metropolitan Police are trying to track down the driver of the lorry which collided with Lorraine.

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Australia: All IVF patients are suspected criminals??

The State government of Victoria thinks so

Australia's National Infertility Network has blasted the Government's proposed overhaul of existing laws, saying imposing criminal checks on women and their partners was a breach of human rights. And the network claims that the Government would face legal action if the legislation passed the Upper House and became law.

ACCESS Australia spokesman Dr Railton Hill said the proposed criminal and child protection order checks under the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Bill were discriminatory. There would be a backlash at the next election if the legislation passed the Upper House, with the Government discriminating against people on the basis of a medical disability, he said. "All of us are being degraded and regarded as second-class citizens with this proposal," he said. "It's a further imposition when you're already in a stressed situation."

The IVF Directors Group has rejected the Government's claim that the early stages of fertility treatment would be exempt from the condition for a criminal and child protection order check. A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Rob Hulls said this week the checks would be required only when a woman was seeking to become pregnant and not at the stage of harvesting eggs. "The requirement for a criminal record check applies to women undergoing a treatment procedure that seeks to procure a pregnancy, such as artificial insemination or IVF", spokeswoman Meaghan Shaw said.

Rick Forbes of the IVF Directors Group said the claim was misleading and the group's legal advice found it was incorrect. "We can't commence any ART, (Assisted Reproductive Treatment) and that means we can't harvest eggs, until those checks are in place," he said. "The moment we inject a woman with hormones to harvest her eggs we have started the process of IVF."

Debate on the Bill was adjourned in the Upper House yesterday after only a handful of Liberal MPs chose to speak on the legislation. A vote is not expected until November 11 when Parliament resumes. It's believed a handful of Labor MPs may vote against the Government's Bill, which would defeat the legislation.

Premier John Brumby said he still predicted the vote in the Upper House, likely in mid-November, would be close. "I thought it would always be very close in the Upper House, I thought the Bill would pass the Lower House but it would be very close in the Upper House so I'm not in a position to make a judgment about that, it is a conscience vote but will be very close," he said. "But there won't be a vote on this for a couple of weeks so we'll wait and see."

He tried to dismiss suggestions it would take four to six weeks for a person to get a criminal and child protection order check. The Herald Sun this week revealed up to 7000 women seeking fertility treatment every year would have to undergo criminal and child protection order checks if the landmark legislation were passed in State Parliament.

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