The family of a teenager who died suddenly from a blood clot linked to a birth control pill says more needs to be done “to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again”.
Aine Rose Hurst, 19, died in March last year from a blood clot in her brain, linked to her prescribed oral contraceptive pill Femodette.
In the months before she died, Ms Hurst was taken off the pill because her annual check-up revealed she had high blood pressure.
Eventually, her blood pressure returned to what is deemed to be an acceptable level under NHS guidance, and she was put back on the contraceptive.
Speaking to Sky News’ The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee, Aine’s mother, Kerry Hurst, and her aunt, Dawn Kidd, have called for more awareness of the side-effects of birth control.
In a statement to Sky News, the Bolton GP Federation said both the coroner and their own review found that Aine was appropriately prescribed the medication.
According to the NHS, the risk of getting a blood clot using combined hormonal contraception like the pill is small, affecting one in 1,000 people.
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After initially being taken off the pill over high blood pressure in December, Aine was prescribed it again as her blood pressure was deemed to be within guidelines.
Mrs Hurst said her daughter called her after a night out with her friends in March last year, saying she’d come home because she had a hangover, then decided she wanted to meet up with her boyfriend and go for food.
But two days later, while working from home, Aine said she still had a headache. She took painkillers on her mother’s advice and then went to bed.
“The next thing I knew, she’d come in my bedroom… crying, saying that her head was really hurting, that it was getting worse, and at one point she begged me to take her to the hospital,” Mrs Hurst said.
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Mrs Hurst said the GP surgery told her to go online and book a consultation, and she then rang 111 on the surgery’s advice.
“While I was on the telephone, they were asking me to ask Aine to do things, and at first she was responding,” she added.
“But then, she just stopped responding, and her head was going back, and she started foaming at the mouth. And at that point, they told me there was an ambulance on its way.”
‘She probably wouldn’t be the same’
After a CT scan at the hospital, doctors decided that they could not operate on the blood clot, as it was too big and any surgery would “probably make things worse” due to it being in the brain.
Mrs Hurst said: “They told us if she was to survive, she probably wouldn’t be the same person.
“And once they tested her brain, to see if there were any function, if there wasn’t any response, they would turn the machines off at that point.
“Which they did in the end, there wasn’t any brain function. They turned the machine off. She died within minutes.”
Speaking to The UK Tonight, Ms Kidd said there is not “a lot of awareness out there of the side-effects” of birth control, adding: “In particular, with Aine’s pill that she was on, inside that packet, inside that box, was a 102-page leaflet, which… nobody reads.
“Probably now, my god, would we have read that. However, people don’t. Especially young girls, and there’s got to be clearer labelling on these packages.”
She then said: “I just feel there’s so much more that can be done to prevent this tragedy ever happening again.”
Mrs Hurst added that “anybody can purchase (contraception pills) online or in a pharmacy” and said: “We just want more awareness around the potential side-effects and what young women are taking and putting in their bodies.”
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In a statement to Sky News, the Bolton GP Federation said: “We would like to express our sincere condolences to Miss Hurst’s family at this very difficult time.
“In relation to the GP, as his employer, we carried out our own internal review and considered this alongside the findings of the inquest.
“Our review and the inquest both concluded that the GP consulted with Miss Hurst in line with the UK Medical Eligibility Criteria (UKMEC), the nationally recognised guidance used by clinicians when a patient requests this medication.”
Watch the full interview with Kerry Hurst and Dawn Kidd on Sky News’ The UK Tonight from 8pm on Monday.
