A teenager died from a blood clot caused by a contraceptive pill which doctors advised her to continue taking despite a high blood pressure reading.
Áine Rose Hurst, 19, collapsed and was rushed to Royal Bolton Hospital on Tuesday, March 11, where doctors found she had ‘severe brain swelling’ before she died two days later.
Áine’s mum, Kerry Hurst, 52, said her daughter had been on a night out on Saturday, March 8, and complained of a headache the following morning.
Believing Áine had a hangover, she told her to take paracetamol and drink water – but the headache continued to get worse.
An inquest into her death at Bolton Coroner’s Court on Thursday, November 27, heard a rare complication from the contraceptive pill – which she had been taking since 2020 – caused Áine’s death.
In December 2024, Áine had been told to stop taking Femodatte after a routine check showed her blood pressure was high.
However, just a month later her GP told her to start taking the pill again.
The family said they were ‘deeply concerned’ that the GP ‘didn’t take into consideration the recent history of high blood pressure’ and want to know what measures are in place ‘to ensure this doesn’t happen again’.
A statement from her family paid tribute to the ‘most beautiful, caring, funny and sensible girl’.
They said: ‘Áine adored her parents, her brother, her grandparents, her aunts, uncles, cousins, boyfriend and friends.
‘She was the life and soul of every gathering and was often heard before she was seen as she had the loudest voice ever.
‘She loved nothing more than a family get-together where she insisted on karaoke and a quiz where she was always the quiz master.
‘This made her family laugh due to her struggling to pronounce most of the words in the questions.
‘We would give anything to hear her ask one more question.
‘Our family is distraught at losing her, life will never be the same for us without our girl.’
Áine’s cause of death was given as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, with the oral contraceptive pill as a ‘potential contributing factor’.
Dr Zeeshan Malik, a consultant in intensive care and anaesthesia at Royal Bolton Hospital, said that he ‘wasn’t satisfied that it was just the pill’ and would have needed more tests to rule out alternatives.
Emma Walker, a nurse for the Bolton GP Federation, met Áine for a routine review on December 18, 2024 and found her blood pressure was elevated – at 140/93 – ‘which was unusual’.
She checked Áine’s blood pressure three times during the appointment, said the reading was ‘exactly the same’ each time and told her to stop taking the pill and see her GP.
The inquest heard no concerns had been raised at any of her yearly check-ups before 2024.
Dr Moyinoluwa Oluwaseyi Onayade met with Áine at Spring House Surgery on January 6 and said she had told him ‘she would like to go back on the pill as soon as possible’.
He said he had discussed switching her to the progesterone-only pill, but that she had ‘declined going on because of the side effects’.
Dr Onayade said: ‘She preferred to go with the pill that she had been on for the past few years without any side effects.’
He added he was concerned because not being on the pill for more than four weeks ‘could lead to an increased risk of developing strokes’.
Confirming that the progesterone-only pill would also reduce this risk, he said he felt the decision to continue her on Femodette ‘was reasonable’.
Dr Onayade said that her blood pressure reading that day had been 130/90, which was within the limit, and her at-home readings since stopping the pill had been 120/70.
He said that he ‘wasn’t convinced her blood pressure was due to the pill’ because he ‘would have expected her blood pressure to return much lower’.
He added that he told her to keep monitoring her blood pressure at home and book another appointment if it was above 140/90.
Kerry said: ‘She came back that night and said “he’s told me to go back on it” – she wouldn’t have taken it if she knew this would happen.
‘We all take our doctor’s advice – she was 19.’
Area coroner Peter Sigee said: ‘Looking back in hindsight, something might appear very obvious – but the question is, was it obvious at the time?’
He said that medications can have rare side effects, and ‘tragically, someone has to be that one in a thousand or one in ten thousand’.
Concluding, Mr Sigee said: ‘One key decision I’ve had to make is whether to include the Femodette medication in the cause of death.’
He said he had decided that the Femodette was appropriate to put in section one of the medical cause of death, meaning that it directly contributed to Áine’s death.
He said: ‘I’m mindful of the evidence of Dr Malik that it wasn’t possible to test for other causes of thrombosis because on admission to the hospital, the focus was, rightly, on trying to save her life.
‘But looking at matters as a whole and on the balance of probabilities, I’m satisfied that it was a cause of the death.’
Mr Sigee gave a short narrative conclusion that the death was ’caused by a recognised but rare complication of appropriately prescribed medication’.
He said: ‘The fact that so many of you are here shows how much Áine was loved by her family.’
