A UK actress died of a blood clot after her symptoms were dismissed as anxiety.
Just weeks after her 30th birthday, Emily Chesterton — who was from Manchester but moved to London to pursue acting — called the doctor’s surgery to make an appointment. She complained of pain in her calves, which became hard.
During the first visit, she was given paracetamol to relieve mild pain. However, her symptoms worsened and Emily’s mother, Marion Chesterton, told the BBC: “She became breathless, dizzy and had difficulty walking.”
Marion said Emily later went for a second appointment and was diagnosed by a physician’s assistant with a “sprained shin, long covid and anxiety.” However, she said her daughter’s lower leg was never examined during the examination.
It was later discovered that Emily’s pain was caused by a blood clot in her left leg, which resulted in her death from a pulmonary embolism — a serious condition in which one or more arteries become blocked by a blood clot.
During both visits, Emily was reportedly seen and treated only by the PA. On the GoFundMe page, Emily’s father, Brendan Chesterton, said his daughter was under the impression she was seeing a doctor, not a PA, who he claimed “on both occasions failed to recognize that Emily’s leg pain was actually a blood clot that eventually traveled to her lungs.”
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Emily Chesterton.
Emily Chesterton/Facebook
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According to Brendan, the coroner’s report stated: “She should have been taken to the emergency department immediately. If she had been in both cases, there is a high probability that she would have been treated for pulmonary embolism and would have survived.”
Now, in honor of their daughter, Marion and Brendan are backing new guidelines issued by the British Medical Association — Safe Scope of Practice for Professional Medical Associates — which state that PAs “should not make independent decisions about patient management or be responsible for initial patient assessments and diagnosis.”
Speaking at an event to launch the new guidelines, Emily’s parents said their daughter would “100%” still be alive if they had been in place before her death.
The Vale Practice in London, which treated Emily, told the BBC it was “deeply saddened” by her death and, after a “thorough” review, was now only giving appointments to GPs, nurses and pharmacists.
The practice also noted that staff were told to ensure “the patient understands their role at the start of each appointment.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education