Inquest: Woman died after chemo (From Thurrock Gazette)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting TGNEWS to 80360 or you can email us Click here for details »
Inquest: Woman died after chemo
7:00am Sunday 3rd March 2013 in News
A CANCER patient died after receiving chemotherapy at a private Harley Street clinic.
The treatment, for tongue cancer, weakened Sharon Thomas’s immune system and she died at Basildon Hospital, probably of a blood infection, an inquest at Chelmsford Coroner’s Court heard.
Dr David Rouse, who carried out a post mortem on the 58-year-old, from Grays, said: “The most likely cause of death is cancer of the tongue and chemotherapy.
“That’s not to say the chemotherapy was being given wrongly.”
Mrs Thomas was confirmed dead at the hospital on February 22, 2010, after collapsing suddenly at home three days after being discharged from the Harley Street Cancer Clinic, London.
She was three weeks into a six-week course of chemotherapy and Dr Rouse told the inquest the chemical treatment would have reduced her white blood cells, which fight infections.
The pathologist said Mrs Thomas was as safe at home as in the clinic. Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded a narrative verdict.
