AN animal lover who was bitten by a stray cat died after being misdiagnosed and sent home from A&E without any antibiotics, an inquest has heard. Gabriele Kreichgauer, 61, a former web designer, loved cats and looked after a stray called Tiggy when it came into her garden, according to her daughter Amalie. Ms Kreichgauer […]
AN animal lover who was bitten by a stray cat died after being misdiagnosed and sent home from A&E without any antibiotics, an inquest has heard.
Gabriele Kreichgauer, 61, a former web designer, loved cats and looked after a stray called Tiggy when it came into her garden, according to her daughter Amalie.
Ms Kreichgauer went to A&E at Newham General Hospital on January 21 after being scratched by the cat.
An inquest at Southwark coroner’s court heard how a junior doctor had wrongly diagnosed her condition as cat scratch fever, having used the hospital’s computer to find out what treatment was needed.
She was prescribed antibiotics but was discharged before getting any medication.
She died on January 23 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich from sepsis.
Assistant coroner Philip Barlow said in a report though that the medication would not have worked as she had been wrongly diagnosed.
Amalie, 28, from south-east London, said: I think what makes me most angry is that she wasn’t even given the medication to treat the bite. Even if she had been given it, it wouldn’t have made a difference.
“The whole family is still struggling to come to terms with what happened.”
She added: “She used to care for [the cat] and look after him like he was one of her own. One day he bit her because he was scared. He had been abused.
“She had a huge compassion for animals and used to love all types of animals.”
The coroner’s report stated: “The correct diagnosis was… an infected cat bite – the infective organism for this is different to the organism causing cat scratch fever, and the appropriate treatment is different. Even if she had been given antibiotics it is therefore likely that these would not have been effective.
“At the inquest the clinicians accepted that it would be helpful for there to be a warning on Uptodate pointing out the need to consider the possibility of infected cat bite, and the important difference between this and cat scratch fever.”
The coroner recorded that Ms Kreichgauer, of Woolwich, “died of sepsis following an infected cat bite of the hand”.
Mr Barlow also submitted a report to Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, asking bosses to make changes to the Uptodate computer system used by the hospital.
Sepsis is a serious complication of an infection, according to the NHS, which needs quick treatment as it can lead to multiple organ failure and death.
The condition can often be diagnosed by measuring things like body temperature, heart rate and breathing rate and in some cases a blood test is needed.
There are around 250,000 cases of sepsis a year in the UK, according to the UK Sepsis Trust and around 46,000 people a year die from the condition.
There are a number of signs to look out for:
Body temperature is higher or lower than normal
Chills and shivering
A fast heartbeat
Problems with your breathing
Feeling or acting differently from your usual self.
Many of the symptoms of sepsis are also associated with meningitis/
More severe symptoms are associated with severe sepsis, also known as septic shock, and your blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level.
Barts said in a statement to The Sun Online: “We are sorry for the failings in the care we gave to Ms Kreichgauer.
“Having investigated the causes we have reviewed our processes and put systems in place to provide safe clinical care.
“We have also asked UpToDate – an approved medical resource database – to improve its indexing to enable selection of the appropriate disorder.”
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