MOTHER OF TWO DIED FROM UNDIAGNOSED MENINGITIS

A mother-of-two died of meningitis after she was diagnosed with an ear infection, an inquest heard today. Gwent Coroner’s Court heard how Sarah Stitt, 36, of Magor visited numerous doctors over the course of a month complaining of severe earache.

Mrs Stitt was admitted to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, on February 8, 2009, after she and her husband Sean insisted that she be kept in because the pain was so bad, but she died within hours.

A post-mortem examination revealed that she died of meningitis as a complication of infections in her inner ear and the bone behind her ear. Gwent Coroner David Bowen recorded a narrative verdict, describing the events that led to Mrs Stitt’s death. He said the treatment which partially resolved the inner ear infection had masked the fact there was an underlying infection of the bone behind her ear which, if diagnosed, would have raised the suspicion of meningitis.

Meningitis, he said, was not diagnosed until after her death and so the opportunity to treat it was missed. She died after being in constant pain for a month, he said.