GP still practising after mother, 37, dies

Philip Lake says his wife would have loved being a mother to 3-year-old Rose. Picture / Anthony Phelps

A 37-year-old Levin mother who sought relief from a migraine died when a GP prescribed her a drug that should never be given to asthmatics.

A Health and Disability Commission investigation last week recommended that the Medical Council consider the competence of the doctor, who is known only as Dr A, after the GP failed to question Lynley Lake about her medical history.

Her husband, Philip, who is now bringing up their 3-year-old daughter Rose on his own, is angry the doctor is still practising and can't be identified.

"That's the hard thing to deal with, the fact that through all this, nothing on the surface will happen to the doctor," he says.

Rose was only 1 year old when her mother died after taking the drug in October 2004. The bright, sociable toddler still looks for Lynley in crowds, Philip says.

"Sometimes she'll ask 'Where's Mum?', or she went through a stage when she saw people in the shops and said 'There's Mummy', or 'Is that Mummy?' and that was hard."

An asthmatic, Lynley also had a history of migraines. Philip was with her when she went to Levin's Tararua Medical Centre complaining of severe head pain. She got an appointment at short notice with a GP who was not Lynley's regular doctor. Dr A prescribed propranolol - a beta blocker used to alleviate migraines but which cannot be taken by asthmatics.

The doctor failed to ask Lynley if she was an asthmatic and didn't check her medical history.

Less than an hour after taking the medication, Lynley began struggling for breath and collapsed as soon as ambulance officers arrived at her home.

The 37-year-old lost consciousness and never woke up, suffering severe brain damage from a lack of oxygen. She died later in hospital.

A coroner found she died from a pulmonary embolism - a clot in the artery between her heart and lungs.

Medical experts who advised a coroner's inquest into her death said propranolol should never be prescribed to asthmatics, something Dr A knew.

Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson said Dr A's failings were "significant and had tragic circumstances" and has recommended the Medical Council check the competence of Dr A, a provisional registrar who was being supervised by another doctor.

He also said poor systems at the medical centre failed to provide a safeguard against a genuine mistake.

Dr A has sent a written apology to Philip Lake, who says his faith has helped him deal with his wife's death.

"I'm a Christian, and so was my wife, and incidentally, so is the doctor. So there is a capacity because of my beliefs. But also through the investigation I have a better understanding of how it all happened.

"I see it as a genuine oversight."

Philip understands his wife's reaction to the drug was unusually severe, and while there have been other cases overseas, few were fatal.

But the paint factory quality controller cannot accept that the Tararua Medical Centre has not made any changes to its systems.

He hates the time he has to spend away from Rose, but works from 9am to 3pm after receiving only a $10,000 compensation claim from ACC, which covered funeral expenses. He receives $127 a week for Rose until she is 5, but that drops to just $17 thereafter.

"I'm really disappointed with the ACC in that way, I just don't think it's fair. It was obvious I had to get back to work if I was to get ahead."

Asked if he feels Dr A robbed him of his wife, Philip says, "Sometimes, yeah, it's a hard one, eh? Certainly there are times, there are plenty of times when I have moments of thinking about things and it does make me upset that Lynley is not around to see how her little girl is doing. She'd be having a ball with her mum."