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The Guardian: Devon woman with ME asked GP to help her ‘get enough food to live’, inquest hears

**Trigger Warning: Upsetting Content**

Maeve Boothby O’Neill, 27, was admitted to Royal Devon and Exeter hospital before her death in 2021.

By Steven Morris

Extracts

A woman with acute ME wrote to her GP pleading for help to “get enough food to live” and expressing despair at not getting the care she felt she needed when she was admitted to hospital, an inquest heard.

Maeve Boothby O’Neill, who had severe ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) for several years, was admitted three times to the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital but felt doctors there did not take her illness seriously.

Four months before she died, aged 27, Boothby O’Neill, wrote to her GP: “I know you’re doing your best for me but I really need help with feeding. I don’t understand why the hospital didn’t do anything to help me when I went in.

“I am hungry. I want to eat. I have been unable to sit up or chew since March [three months before]. The only person helping me eat is my mum. I can’t get enough calories from a syringe. Please help me get enough food to live.”

At the start of her inquest in Exeter, it was revealed that Boothby O’Neill’s GP, Dr Lucy Shenton, who had worked hard to get her help, would not appear to give evidence because she had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder over the case.

The coroner, Deborah Archer, said: “She felt stress and Maeve’s tragic death had taken a very significant toll on her.”

Boothby O’Neill had lived with severe ME/CFS for several years, but it became more acute in 2021 when she was often confined to bed and found it almost impossible to get up, wash, eat or drink.

Her family and her GP surgery tried to get help for her and she was admitted to the Royal Devon three times. On the first occasion, in March 2021, she was discharged on the same day after a doctor said they could not find “anything medical” wrong.

She was admitted to hospital again later in May. When she was discharged, the specialist CFS service told her there were “long waiting times” for patients to be seen. Boothby O’Neill was admitted for a third time in the summer of 2021. She died in October.

Giving evidence, Shenton’s GP colleague, Dr Paul McDermott, said the surgery did not have specialist knowledge of ME/CFS. He said: “We needed help. We all needed help. Maeve needed help.”

Guardian Article

Further Media Coverage

The ME Association: Website Terminology

CFS - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
ME - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis or Encephalopathy
PVFS - Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome

Long Covid - Post-Covid Fatigue Syndrome
PACS - Post-Acute Sequalae of Covid-19
PEM - Post-Exertional Malaise
RRF - The ME Association Ramsay Research Fund

DecodeME - The World's Largest Genetic Study
DHSC - Department of Health & Social Care
DWP - Department of Work & Pensions
JLA PSP - James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership
MERC - ME Research Collaborative

MRC - Medical Research Council
NICE - National Institute for Health & Care Excellence
NIHR - National Institute for Health & Care Research
UKRI - UK Research and Innovation

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