Woman told GP of ‘unwell’ feeling day before death

A 20-YEAR-OLD woman who died of pneumonia attended her local GP the day before her death complaining of feeling unwell, the Dublin Corner’s Court heard yesterday.

Vicky Corr, of Kilmartin Avenue, Tallaght, was rushed by ambulance to Tallaght Hospital on the morning of July 1, 2007, after her parents found her collapsed in her bedroom.

She was pronounced dead an hour later.

An inquest into her death heard Ms Corr was so unwell on the morning of June 30 that her father, Thomas Corr, had to help her into the GP surgery where she was seen by Dr Hugh Durkin.

Mr Corr said yesterday he told Dr Durkin that Vicky was finding it hard to breathe and that he told the doctor he wanted to bring her to hospital.

Dr Durkin, however, said that nobody told him Ms Corr was breathless and said her main complaint was vomiting.

During his examination he listened to Ms Corr’s chest and found there was good air entry and he didn’t find any evidence of respiratory distress.

She never complained of any of the main symptoms of pneumonia — a cough, pains in the chest or being breathless, he said.

He diagnosed her with an abdominal infection and prescribed motilium.

He didn’t recall Mr Corr saying he wanted to bring his daughter to hospital, but he didn’t dispute it.

Her mother, Maureen Corr, said Vicky had been sick for a number of weeks and had been finding it increasingly difficult to hold her breath. She complained of breathlessness and palpitations and had been sent home from work on a number of occasions.

Maureen Corr said Vicky had attended another doctor at the practice, Dr Tom Field, three weeks before her death, on June 7, and had complained to him of breathlessness.

Dr Field said Ms Corr never mentioned chest pains or breathlessness to him on June 7 and that her complaints were of abdominal pain, of general aches and pains and of heavy periods.

He ordered blood tests, which were taken at the surgery on June 14, and the results, which were received on June 19, indicated that Vicky’s lymphocyte level was high.

Vicky called the practice for results 10 days later.

Dr Field said when Maureen Corr, who was at his surgery with a younger daughter on June 29, indicated she was worried about Vicky, he told her she had one abnormal liver test and should attend the practice on July 2. She died the previous day.

The blood tests revealed no raised white cell count, which he would have expected to have seen if there was pneumonia.

A postmortem revealed Vicky died of community acquired bronchial pneumonia and she had developed a bacterial infection secondary to an underlying viral infection.

The coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty recorded a verdict of natural causes.