mystery illness

knight22

Girl dies after cutting foot on glass Dec 8 2004




Nick Sharpe, South Wales Echo


LUCY Wilson's life had everything she ever wanted, but the tragic 23-year-old couldn't have known it was all going to be snatched away from her.

Doctors still cannot identify the mystery illness which killed the Lloyds TSB worker, who had been working at the company's call centre in Mumbai, India.

Co-workers who travelled to India with Lucy were sent home from work in tears yesterday, unable to cope with her death on Monday night.

Lucy spent six weeks in India, and was "desperate to get back out there" when the bug struck less than two weeks after she returned home to Hornbeam Walk, Rogerstone, for a break.

Days later she was dead.

Lucy cut her foot on a broken beer bottle on a night out with friends in India.

It became infected and when the popular former Bassaleg School pupil got home, she went to see her GP.

She was prescribed antibiotics, but within days her condition deteriorated and she was admitted to Neville Hall Hospital in Abergavenny.

"The hospital thought she had hepatitis and called specialists in Birmingham," said dad Julian.

But when conventional treatments failed, Lucy was rushed to Birmingham with chronic liver failure.

"We have just spent three days watching our daughter slip away from us, and eventually watching her die," said Julian.

"At the end she was on dialysis because her kidneys had failed. The doctors were completely baffled. We still do not know why she died."

Lucy had worked in administration at Lloyds TSB's 1,800-employee call centre in Tredegar Park, Newport.

A chance to travel to India - where the bank has controversially "offshored" call centre jobs - came up, and she was chosen to travel.

"Imagine how excited she was," said Julian.

Since her death, the bank have contacted Julian and Lucy's mum Jane and offered their condolences, as well as counselling.

"Lucy was having such a wonderful time out there, and she was such a popular girl. She had - no, has - so many friends. We just can't believe she's gone, and we don't know why," said Jane.

Julian describes his daughter as "an intelligent, loving, lively and popular girl".

Lucy leaves a sister, Sian, 27, and a brother Ben, 25
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100n...name_page.html


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This is really worrying for me. The thing that bothers me the most is that they still can't identify what killed her. The idea that some unknown disease can kill someone so quickly is disturbing. It's making me scared about going to India.

Robert

Nick-H

This is a tragic story, and I'm very sorry for this woman's family and friends.

But making you scared to go to India? Do you have any idea how many people die in UK hospitals from infections they catch while in hospital?* I'm more scared of going to hospital than I am of going to India.

I also wonder if this woman might have been succesfully diagnosed and treated if she had stayed in India. Indian doctors are used to Indian microbes. Tropical diseases is a rare speciality here in UK. I heard of a [Indian] businessman who died of an undiagnosed disease ('go home to bed, it's probably just a touch of flu'), in UK, which turned out to be Malaria. An Indian GP would certainly have recognised it.

India is not a sterile environment (understatement of the millenium?) and we understand that we will be exposed to perhaps more but certainly different risks there. Perhaps some are more, or less, informed about the risks, but few of us ignore them completely. We take the decision to go. Our risk.


*I believe that it is more than die in UK road accidents

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

edwardseco

Could be flesh eating bacteria. Our chancellor fell and scraped a knee while jogging in the old US of A. Happened on a Friday and dead by Monday..

mira4bai4

I would agree with Nick on this one and my nurse wife over my shoulder who is front line A&E also tells of the high % of medical misadventures in Australian hospitals but also how many people come in for treatment often days or weeks after injuring themselves when things are really going bad. The Indian doctors are really switched on and are the front line for our medical defence, even natural therapists in India would have been on top of it. They all have the policy of getting you and especially a foreigner to the best medical centre for treatment, they all know how important quick action is on such things.

It is a very unfortunate situation but it is better for us to learn from other peoples experience than our own at times. When in India don't be to proud of seeking help, don't panic and pay close attention to your health and well being; everything else will fall into place.

mira4bai4

If it was flesh eating bacteria it would not be a mystery me thinks.

docmarton

i am a doctor and specialist for infectious diseases.
something like this can happen everywhere.

without clear information about her illness its difficult to make a diagnosis via internet. i think she had a septicemia derived from the cut. maybe "flesh eating bacteria".
she died because she had multi organ failure at the end.

this story is for sure no reason to cancel my travel to india...

Rob_The_Pom

Desparately sad, but don't let it stop you travelling.
Travelling builds as people, helps break down borders and exposes us to worlds that we would never otherwise see.
I suspect this poor girl realised that this was the case and so jumped at the chance to travel.
Life is so precious and fragile, yet we can't let that fragility ruin our one opportunity to see the world.

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