SOPHIA AND M.E.

 

1973 - 2005

Sophia died from M.E. in November 2005. The day before she died I promised her that her life would help many other people.

The object of this site is to show how and what was done to Sophia, so that maybe through this, others will become aware of the horrors perpetrated on her and on many others suffering from this terrible disease. I believe that it is incumbent on each and every one of us to find a way to ensure that all doctors and psychiatrists must conform to the guidelines of the World Health Organisation.

My youngest child, Sophia, suffered from severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) for at least six years. This disease is also controversially known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Since 1969 the World Health Organisation (WHO) has categorised M.E. as a physical neurological disease. The doctors and psychiatrist threatened Sophia with sectioning in a mental hospital if she refused to go into a particular M.E. Clinic. They carried out their threat in July 2003. The effects on Sophia's health were devastating. She died on 25th November 2005. She was only 32.

POEM

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak  up, because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the sick, the so-called  incurables, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't mentally ill.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and by that time there was  no one left to speak up for me."

Niemoller 1946

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MEDIEVAL PRACTICES IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY

The documents in this site are the original letters written by the doctors and the social workers themselves. They show how they chose to ignore the World Health Organisation. For decades many thousands of patients with M.E have been treated in a similar fashion. These misguided practices must be stopped. The day before she died I promised Sophia that her life would help many other people. She answered "then it was all worth it". Those were the last words she spoke. This website is for all the thousands of sufferers who have M.E. and their families.

After the inquest on Sophia, I went through the correct channels to try to get accountability from those involved and thus change things for the better for all the others who suffer from this most awful disease. I entered complaints about 6 doctors to the General Medical Council (GMC). I also complained to Social Services (SS) about the social worker. I then tried, unsuccessfully, to implement legal action (legal file). I felt that such steps had to be taken, so that not only had I followed the correct procedures, but at a later date it could be seen that it had been so. I have done everything possible. Sadly, I have failed.

I believe it is now time that not only the public in general, but doctors, psychiatrists, the legal profession and M.P.s should read Sophia's documents. They need to see them so that they can understand how the doctors, psychiatrists, social workers and others in high places coldly ignored the truly terrible physical suffering she endured; how her right to make a valid choice was brushed aside and her human rights totally abused. It is clear to me that grave injustices were done to her, not only in her life, but in what I see as a 'cover up' in her death. This same criteria is still being used against many thousands of others with M.E. in a similar way.

Officially, Sophia had M.E. since 1999. She was offered 'treatment' in an M.E. clinic. She asked me to research it. I spoke to some ex-patients, too frightened to have their names used, who said it was run on the lines of mental health. On phoning the clinic I spoke to their Senior Occupational Therapist who had visited Sophia and had done the assessment on her. She eventually told me that those with severe M.E. regressed to their original state of ill-health. Given such a negative prognosis, Sophia refused this option; for this reasonable decision she was sectioned in a mental hospital in 2003.

The extensive post mortem showed up no cause of death. We requested an independent neuropathologist to research Sophia's spine. The findings confirmed that it contained massive infection. At the inquest the Coroner confirmed that "She died as a result of acute renal failure arising from the effects of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)"/ M.E.

NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY

By their rulings, the GMC has confirmed that it was quite in order for doctors and psychiatrists to section Sophia. The GMC employed psychiatrists as their 'experts', thus confirming that they too would ignore the World Health Organisation. Logically, it follows that doctors and psychiatrists can now treat patients suffering from ANY PHYSICAL DISEASE, as mentally ill, should they choose to do so. I do not agree.

Because the doctors, psychiatrist and social worker were cleared of maltreatment, I believe that they will welcome the transparency that these, their own documents, reveal. They chart the course of their thoughts and actions, far better than I ever could.

Why are doctors allowed to section patients who are physically ill and not mentally ill in a mental hospital ?
Why does the General Medical Council breach their own guidelines and condone such actions?
Why is the World Health Organisation being ignored?