A Welsh health board has been heavily criticised after an elderly coeliac patient died within days of being fed Weetabix in hospital. A coroner described Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board as "amateurish with no strategic direction".
Hazel Pearson passed away on November 30, 2021 at 10.45pm. Four days before her death, the 80-year-old coeliac -a condition where your immune system attacks your own tissues when you eat gluten- was fed Weetabix, which consists mostly of wheat, for breakfast between the hours of 8am and 9am.
North Wales Live reported that by 11.20am that day, the retired credit controller's condition had worsened with reports from nurses on the ward saying that she had begun to vomit and that she was heaving for large parts of the day. Mrs Pearson was prescribed anti-hermetic medication shortly afterwards to stop the vomiting but she refused to take it because she said it had previously made her ill, a nurse said in a statement.
