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Man Dies Just Weeks After Doctors Chalked Up His Intense Migraines To ‘Anxiety’
“I was being fobbed off.”
A mom shared her grief and disappointment towards the medic members of Rochdale Infirmary and the Fairfield General Hospital as her 22-year-old son passed away just weeks after he was “fobbed off.”
Johnny Alfrey, 22, passed away in June 2022 from sudden heart failure.
For weeks, the son and mom had been looking for a doctor to look into what was wrong with him. It started on May the same year, when his mom, Julie Alfrey, recalled the boy complaining fatigue and “heaviness” in the legs when walking.
He began vomiting and experienced intense migraines days later and was unable to sleep nor eat properly. His dad, Chris Charnley, was also concerned.
Julie drove her son to Rochdale Infirmary on May 23rd. Johnny collapsed while waiting to be seen.
“He was wet with sweat and his lips were blue. I had to run to find somebody. He was slumped in his chair and they took him straight through.”
The first doctor suggested that he seems to be experiencing alcohol withdrawal, but Julie argued that Johnny isn’t a heavy drinker. Despite detecting heart arrythmia, the medics chalked it up to “benign” because Johnny was young.
But he was referred to Fairfield General Hospital anyway to have more in-depth examinations, as Johnny’s condition was getting worse by the minute.
While heading to the hospital in Bury, his lips and fingers were turning “blue.”
Both Fairfield General Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary were experiencing IT failures at the time and a night nurse urged them to leave because they might have to spend the night in the corridor.
Johnny was rushed back to the emergency room two days later with clearly concerning symptoms, but the another doctor continued to refuse giving him a look and chalked it up to a “mental health issue.”
“He said to me: ‘This is anxiety. He is having panic attacks. We can’t treat anxiety here. You can’t bring him back with these symptoms.’ I was being fobbed off.”
Days later, they headed back to Rochdale Infirmary again and results were already showing “abnormal liver function.” He was discharged anyways, but not because he was getting better.
Julie said he “couldn’t stand up.”
“He was screaming, ‘Help me, mum. Help me. What is wrong with me? I’m dying.'”
Eight days after he was discharged, he was admitted back at the hospital. His liver had failed and his kidneys had “taken a hit.”
His dad recalled, “He kept asking me if he was going to die. He just wanted to hold my hand, he wouldn’t let go.”
He was finally sent to Wythenshawe Hospital, but doctors couldn’t tell what was wrong until he died on June 24.
He passed away from sudden heart failure. In defense of Fairfield’s diagnosis, Dr Moataz Adnan reasoned that they believed his irregular heart beat” didn’t seem to be related, but added that he should’ve been seen by a cardiologist.
