A WOMAN who lived near Faringdon died from a “once in a million” complication due to prescribed medication, an inquest heard yesterday.

Christine Beck, 67, was found collapsed in a ward at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital on Sunday, March 30.

Oxfordshire Coroner’s Court heard the retired carer suffered bleeding on the brain after kidney and liver failure, believed to be caused by a very rare problem with cyclophosphamide chemotherapy drugs used to treat her.

Ms Beck, a divorcee of Perry’s Road, Stanford in the Vale, was diagnosed with renal vasculitis – an inflammation of blood vessels in kidneys – in early February after reporting flu-like symptoms.

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She was given four doses of cyclophosphamide to treat the kidney problems between February 12 and March 26.

Two days after the final dose she was admitted to hospital, after suffering vomiting and diarrhoea.

Her condition quickly deteriorated and she was pronounced dead two days after her hospital admission.

Prof Ian Roberts, a consultant pathologist, told the inquest the complications were “unpredictable” and were not dependent on the doses.

He added: “There’s no evidence the drug itself was given inappropriately.

“It’s a very widely used drug and this is almost a one in a million case.”

Coroner Darren Salter said there were 76 reported cases of the drug having adverse effects linked to livers, with 10 deaths, since 1964.

Narrative verdict: Death from an intracerebral haemorrhage due to liver injury, most likely caused by cyclophosphamide treatment.

 

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