A mom-of-two died from drinking too much water and her husband is now blaming a health facility
Michelle Whitehead, 45, from England, was taken to Millbrook Mental Health Unit in Nottinghamshire on May 5, 2021, after suffering a mental breakdown, the BBC reported.
She died two days later after drinking water excessively and going into a coma — something the staff discovered too late, he claimed.
“Had they acted earlier Michelle would have been taken to ICU and put on a drip. That would have saved her life,” Michael Whitehead, Michelle’s husband of 22 years, claimed.
Whitehead had a condition called psychogenic polydipsia which “is characterized by excessive volitional water intake and is often seen in patients with psychiatric disorders and/or neurodevelopmental disorders,” the medical journal BMJ Best Practice explained.
Workers at the facility didn’t diagnose Whitehead with psychogenic polydipsia at the time, her husband claimed, and she was allowed to have unsupervised access to water in her room.
An investigation into her death found that staffers allegedly gave her tranquilizers to sleep and she fell into a coma, something workers reportedly didn’t realize until four hours later.
Michelle was transferred to King’s Mill Hospital where she died from low sodium levels from excessively drinking water.
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