Woman Dies After Brain Virus is Misdiagnosed as Depression

By Alex Groberman, Tue, May 10, 2011

A British woman died from a rare form of brain virus after being misdiagnosed with depression by doctors, Fox News is reporting.

The 30-year-old Jane Harrop visited her local hospital and complained of severe head and neck pains after collapsing in February of last year. However, after a brief examination, doctors told her she was simply suffering from a migraine -- unable to locate any other causes for concern. In the months leading up to her collapse, despite nine separate visits to doctors complaining of violent headaches, she was simply given antidepressants and never referred for tests.

"The [doctor] thought she was depressed because she was trying for a baby and hadn't had one. Jane was a happy-go-lucky character -- I didn't think she was depressed. She said her brain felt like it was being crushed," according to Harrop's mother, Linda Cook.

Ultimately, Harrop died eight days after she had been taken to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. Even there, a brain scan was delayed for five days because she felt claustrophobic and the staff didn’t have a way of sedating her. She wasn’t transferred to the specialized brain unit at a nearby due to a lack of beds, the court was later told.

Dr. Martin Carey, a pathologist, noted that Harrop’s death was caused by inflammation of the brain and spine by a virus that took over a period of at least two months to develop.

Jean Paul, another patient on the ward, said that the nurses ignored Harrop’s screams of pain during her last night alive.

"She was screaming in pain and shouting for help, but no one came to her," said Paul. "I was disgusted at the way the poor woman was left."

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