Woman died of diet pill overdose after waiting hours in A&E for treatment

The 21-year-old died after overdosing on diet pills.

Bethany Shipsey died after she overdosed on Dinitrophenol, known as DNP, which she bought online. When she went to A&E, her parents say she was not treated as a priority patient despite Bethany’s dad pleading with staff, knowing how dangerous the pills could be. Bethany’s parents say her treatment came all too late, waiting nearly two hours until a doctor saw her. She was given anti-sickness medication, however, another two hours later she went into cardiac arrest and died. A spokesperson for the Worcestershire Acute Hospital NHS Trust said in a statement:

"This is a tragic case and our condolences are with the family. “As is common practice with incidents of this nature, we have undertaken a full internal review of this case. “The results of this have been shared with the family and we have since met with them to answer their questions. “At this point, the Trust cannot comment any further until after the Coroner’s inquest.”

The young woman had turned to the pills while on leave from a psychiatric ward where she was dealing with the effects of an extremely abusive relationship, with Barry Fince. The 23-year-old was convicted last year of six counts of rape and was served with a six-year jail sentence. A five-day inquest into Bethany’s death is due to begin in January of 2018.