Medical professionals who treated a young lady who passed away after a decade of crippling ME have refuted physicians’ claims that her condition was not “physical,” according to an inquiry.
Exeter resident Maeve Boothby-O’Neill, 27, passed away in October 2021 after a battle with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), sometimes called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
An inquest determined that there is a severe shortage of research into the disease and a critical scarcity of specialized hospital wards to treat individuals with the condition.
Her exhaustion, which she first experienced at 13, worsened when she finished her A-levels, and she subsequently found it difficult to sustain any normality due to fatigue. Miss Boothby-O’Neill spent her final months bedridden, unable to chew food or drink from a straw. She could hardly get out of bed for anything other than to use the restroom; she couldn’t read, watch TV, or hold a conversation.
Three times that year, Miss Boothby-O’Neill was admitted to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for treatment of malnutrition, according to the inquest.
She was admitted to the eating disorder unit in July due to her worsening condition, but she was subsequently released.
During the hearing, Dr. Ovishek Roy, a consultant gastroenterologist, expressed his belief that all parties involved made a sincere effort to understand the fundamentals, prioritize her welfare, and seek and provide guidance. He elaborated by saying that staying involved wasn’t in their purview, but they did it nevertheless.
During her third hospitalization, Miss Boothby-O’Neill was connected to a nasogastric tube for artificial nutrition; however, difficulties led to its removal, as reported at the inquest.
According to Dr. Roy, any further tube usage ran the risk of line sepsis, with her death the likely result.
It was suggested that the hospital physicians did not see ME as a physical condition, but Dr. Roy denied the claim, saying that he had never handled a case as severe as Mr. O’Neill’s daughter before.
In her family’s view, the two-week inquest into Boothby O’Neill’s death has the potential to be a watershed case that draws attention to the medical community’s failures in treating chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
