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Anorexic died after doctors let her go home

Maxine Frith,Social Affairs Correspondent
Thursday 05 February 2004 01:00 GMT
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An anorexic young woman died days after doctors failed to compel her to have hospital treatment.

Samantha Price, 22, weighed just five stone when she suffered heart failure and died as she was rushed by ambulance to hospital.

The South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust is investigating why doctors allowed Ms Price to go home after an appointment five days before her death.

Her mother Maureen said: "They knew her history, they knew how ill she was and how quickly she would deteriorate."

Ms Price had suffered from anorexia since she was 12, and had been admitted to hospital on several occasions. On 13 November last year, she kept a specialist appointment at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, but refused to be admitted as an in-patient.

She was sent home with an appointment scheduled for 18 September, but died on the morning of the appointment.

A coroner ruled that Miss Price's death was caused by misadventure due to malnutrition as a result of anorexia nervosa.

Professor Glen Waller, the last doctor to see Miss Price, said: "I don't think there is anything we could have done."

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