A WOMAN died after experiencing a severe allergic reaction to a substance used in a routine hospital scan, an inquest had heard.
Catherine Warren (69) of Brookfield Court, Blackrock, Co Dublin died of brain injury at St Vincent’s hospital, Dublin 4 on January 17th, 2008, nine days after she suffered an anaphylactic reaction to a substance used as part of a CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis.
Mrs Warren has been admitted to St Vincent’s hospital on January 7th with abdominal pain, which had been ongoing of three weeks, and underwent a standard CT scan on January 8th.
After the scan radiographer Sonya Allen became concerned upon noticing that Mrs Warren, who had a history of asthma and an allergy to an antibiotic, appeared to be in respiratory distress, Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard.
She administered oxygen to Mrs Warren and called a radiographer colleague to alert Dr Ronan Kileen, a specialist registrar in radiology. Mrs Warren told Dr Kileen she felt “funny” before suffering a respiratory arrest and collapsing.
She was administered medication for an allergic reaction, as well as oxygen, and the cardiac arrest team were called.
Minutes later Mrs Warren suffered a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated, but she had experienced brain damage as a result of the collapse and the cardiac arrest. She never regained consciousness and died at the hospital on January 17th.
The inquest heard that Mrs Warren’s death was due to brain damage secondary to a cardiac arrest secondary to an anaphylactic reaction to a radiological contrast medium.
A radiological contrast medium is a substance injected into the veins as part of the CT scan.
Mrs Warren had no known allergy to contrast media. Giving evidence Dr Kileen said it was a very severe anaphylactic type reaction and said while he had seen two relatively severe reactions before they were, “nothing like this.” Professor Oscar Traynor, under whose care Mrs Warren was admitted and who ordered the scan, said he found the case very difficult to understand.
“In all my years I’ve never seen such a severe reaction . . . and such brain damage with prompt resuscitation,” he said.
The coroner recorded a verdict of death by medical misadventure.