A mom-of-two has died from drinking too much water and her husband lays all the blame on the health facility.
Michelle Whitehead, a 45 year old woman, from England, was taken to Millbrook Mental Health Unit in Nottinghamshire on May 5, 2021, after suffering a mental breakdown, the BBC reported.
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She died two days later after drinking water excessively and going into a coma, something the staff discovered too late, he claimed.
Had they acted earlier Michelle would have been taken to ICU and put on a drip. That would have saved her life,” Michael Whitehead, Michelle’s husband of 22 years, claimed.
Whitehead had a condition called psychogenic polydipsia which “is characterized by excessive volitional water intake and is often seen in patients with psychiatric disorders and/or neurodevelopmental disorders,”
An investigation into her death found that hospital staff allegedly gave her tranquilizers to sleep and she fell into a coma, something workers reportedly didn’t realize until four hours later.
Michelle was transferred to King’s Mill Hospital where she died from low sodium levels from excessively drinking water.
The extreme water intake caused brain swelling which ultimately killed her.
The BBC reported that Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust admitted to eight failings including not adhering to their policy after Michelle was tranquilized and staffers being distracted by their mobile phones.
The investigation concluded that the mental health unit’s failings “probably more than minimally” contributed to her death.
The coroner asked the mental health unit to get better at detecting psychogenic polydipsia in the future to prevent future deaths.
