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Trial By Error: In England, Conflicts Between Families and Hospitals Threaten the Lives of Young Women with ME
Leave a Comment / By David Tuller / 9 April 2024https://virology.ws/2024/04/09/tria...ls-threaten-the-lives-of-young-women-with-me/
By David Tuller, DrPH
ME patients and advocates in England have been alarmed by a series of ongoing cases in which the families of severely ill young women have struggled to convince hospitals to fit them with feeding tubes before they starve to death. I covered a similar situation last year in a piece about the life and death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, who died at 27 in October, 2021, after failing to obtain the care she hoped for at her local hospital in Exeter.
But recently other cases have gained attention. The most dire at the moment is that of Millie McAinsh, a young woman from Lancaster. Her situation was highlighted in a change.org petition, a fundraising appeal, and harrowing accounts in The Canary on March 8th, Byline Times on March 19th and The Mirror on April 4th. The latter, by Mirror deputy online features editor Elle Fry, starts like this:
“A hospitalised teen who is unable to walk, talk or eat fears she is going to die because doctors don’t agree that she has ME.
“Millie McAinsh, 18, says she suffers from ME that is so acute that she can’t walk or sit up and struggles to speak or swallow. Even the smallest sensations like touch, noise and light unbearable, as her sensory hypersensitivity leaves her in agony.”