http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2552580a10,00.html

Killer bug anguish

28 June 2003

By MARIANNE BETTS

A 25-year-old woman died of suspected meningococcal disease after waiting more than three hours at Wellington Hospital before being seen by a doctor at a medical centre and sent home.
 

Nileema Sharan was found dead in her bed at her central Wellington flat on Thursday, the day after seeing the doctor.

Her flatmate was taken to Wellington Hospital yesterday with suspected meningococcal disease.

It was the second death from the disease within 48 hours.

On Tuesday, an 18-year-old soldier died of suspected meningococcal disease at Waiouru Military Camp. Another soldier from his platoon is in a serious but stable condition in Palmerston North Hospital with the disease.

The two recruits were part of an intake of 174 soldiers. They were all being given antibiotics last night.

Seventeen people died from meningococcal disease last year and 202 have been diagnosed with the disease this year.

Ms Sharan, a receptionist at the InterContinental Hotel, strained her neck when reaching to her left on Wednesday. Hotel manager Wayne Martin said she was taken to a room where she began shaking uncontrollably.

Hotel staff called an ambulance and she was taken to Wellington Hospital emergency department. She was accompanied by a colleague and her sister. A friend who arrived two hours later said she was very sick.

"She was lying in a bed in the waiting room spewing," friend Deke Tuari said. He said her neck and chest were very sore and she had developed a temperature.

After three-and-a-half hours they were told a doctor would not be able to see her for another hour or two.

Her employer sent a driver to take her from the hospital to the nearby Accident and Urgent Medical Centre, where she was seen by a doctor.

Mr Tuari said a doctor gave her a couple of injections, and she was told she had strained her neck. She had a brace put on and was sent home.

On the way, she was sick in the car, and Mr Tuari put her straight to bed about 6.30pm, telling her flatmates to keep an eye on her.

At 1pm the next day her flatmate found her dead in her bed.

Last night, her distraught mother, Radhika Mani, was still trying to piece together the last days of her daughter's life.

"How come the doctors did not recognise meningitis, and how come she was not seen at the (hospital) emergency unit?

"I am very concerned. If they had taken the time to check her thoroughly she would be living now, not dead," Ms Mani said.

A Wellington Hospital spokeswoman said information was still being gathered on the incident but at this point it appeared there was nothing to suggest there was anything seriously wrong.

When she arrived, 20 people were already waiting to be seen and a further 21 arrived after her during the three hours she waited. "It's quite common for people to wait that long when they are not serious," she said.

Accident and Urgent Medical Centre manager Helen Ballantyne said police had contacted the centre about the death yesterday morning and an investigation had begun.

Mrs Ballantyne said the woman arrived at the centre at 3.30pm on Wednesday and was seen by a doctor, but she had been unable to contact the doctor, who was on a day off yesterday.

She said these things happened "extremely rarely", and she did not want to make any comment till the investigation was completed.

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