Student beautician, 20, died of heart attack after she stopped taking her epilepsy medicationKatie Coombs suffered fatal seizure at home after complaining of feeling illWas told by doctors to carry on taking tablets despite not having a fit
She cancelled three further appointments, one just days before she diedHer parents did not know she wasn't on her medication, inquest heard
and August 3, 2012 – five days before her death.
Katie's father, James Coombs, told the Stockport hearing he had tried to get his daughter to go to appointments and had not realised she hadn't been taking her tablets.
'Much-loved daughter': Katie, who studied Beauty Therapy at Manchester College, was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2009 after her boyfriend gave doctors details of episodes she suffered in her sleep
He said his daughter had been sick on the day leading up to her death.
Mr Coombs added: 'Between 9am and 7pm, she didn't show any signs of any fit whatsoever, she just looked like someone who was feeling ill. She said, “I just want to sleep it off dad.”
'Then she was making noises which gave us cause for concern, that's when we decided that it was something more serious'.
He added: 'I found out after her death that she hadn't been taking her medication. I was always under the impression she was taking it.
'She made out that she had an appointment at the job centre or something, she was a bit vague about the appointments. She said “I'm not going, I have got to go somewhere else”.'
Shocked: Katie's parents, Linda and James Coombs (pictured leaving the inquest), tried to get their daughter to see the doctor and didn't realise she hadn't been taking her tablets
Paramedic Claire Holmes, whose ambulance was directed to the scene, arrived at the house at 10.56pm on August 7, last year.
She went upstairs and found Katie lying on her bed and her distressed parents in the room with her.
In a statement, she said: 'Her legs
were twitching, I could see that she was having a seizure, so I tried
calling her name.
'She would scream a bit and look at me, but her eyes
said they hadn't seen her all day – her parents thought that she had
food poisoning, they thought she had been vomiting all day.'
paramedic requested back-up before administering diazepam and
adrenaline, which calmed Katie, but she then suffered another fit
which saw her heart rate dramatically drop.
was a sudden change and one that I didn't expect to occur. Her father
helped me get her on the floor and I checked her pulse and breathing.
'She had no pulse and wasn't breathing'.'
long attempts of chest compressions, shocks and CPR, which carried on
as the other ambulance arrived at 11.25pm and took her to Tameside
Hospital, she was pronounced dead at 1am.
hearing was told another ambulance should have been sent to the scene
11 minutes earlier but it was not known whether the delay reduced
Katie's chance of surviving.
a verdict of death by natural causes Stockport deputy coroner Joanne
Kearsley said: 'Katie did have a diagnosis of epilepsy, but had no fits
throughout 2010 and during at least some of that time she appears to be
complying with her medication.
'I don't know why, but since May 2010, she hadn't been complying with her medication.
'On August 7, 2012, she hadn't been feeling well all that day. Clearly she did have a fit, she was seen having a fit around 11pm.
'We know that Claire Holmes was on the scene very quickly. I think that that paramedic has done her best do treat Katie – she has done her upmost best to treat her quickly.
'But Katie has very quickly gone into cardiac arrest. They continued CPR for a long time but sadly her death was confirmed at hospital. Her cause of death is sudden and unexpected death of epilepsy.
'Katie was clearly a very much-loved daughter, young lady and young woman to all of her family and friends.'