A BARROW woman who lived her final months in ‘mental and physical torment’ died in hospital after undergoing high-risk surgery that doctors overruled her objections to, an inquest heard.

Carol McIntyre, of Steamer Street, died on October 11, 2022, after failing to recover from a laparotomy, a procedure to remove an acute bowel obstruction that Mrs McIntyre had developed while she was an in-patient in the Dova Unit at Dane Garth in Barrow.

The 67-year-old widow underwent the operation on September 15, 2022, despite expressing her wishes for the surgery not to be performed, it was heard.

In a statement read to the Coroner’s Court in Cockermouth, Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Nigel Eastwood said that after her initial refusal, doctors convened in a meeting where they determined that Mrs McIntyre lacked the mental capacity to refuse surgery, and that it was in her best interests for the procedure to be carried out.

This was despite the risks involved, caused by Mrs McIntyre suffering from type-2 diabetes and chronic pulmonary obstructive disorder (COPD).

She had been admitted to Furness General Hospital that day, along with the previous two days, with acute abdominal pain, and a distended abdomen, and on the first two occasions had discharged herself against medical advice.

Assistant Coroner for Cumbria Robert Cohen heard that Mrs McIntyre had an ‘extensive history of serious mental health difficulties’ and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1972 – a diagnosis which was changed to organic personality disorder in 1998.

Summarising a statement from Kaye Warby, a Senior Occupational Therapist from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust, Mr Cohen said:

“The picture that emerges is that support was offered to Mrs McIntyre but not readily accepted.

“Traumatic events and brain injury had left her with lifelong difficulties.

“She was described at the age of 17 as having ‘a low tolerance of frustration’, and quickly irritated by other people.

“These traits seem to have remained.”

The court heard that Mrs McIntyre had been detained under the Mental Health Act numerous times throughout her life, but on July 27, 2022, she was detained for the final time, never to return home.

According to Dr Eastwood, Mrs McIntyre was detained when police were called to her house after she was ‘shouting at neighbours’.

She underwent a mental health assessment the following day and was detained.

On the evening of September 11, 2022, she experienced the first signs of the abdominal pain that would lead to the surgery four days later.

She was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Furness General Hospital after the operation, where she was intubated until September 22, when she appeared to be ‘briefly stable’.

Her blood oxygen levels deteriorated over the following days however, and doctors took the decision to place Mrs McIntyre in palliative, end-of-life care on September 25, due to the poor prognosis.

Mr Cohen concluded Mrs Mcintyre's death to be of natural causes – a lower respiratory tract infection related to her COPD, caused by her recent bowel surgery.