‘Traumatised’ woman, 20, begged her mum to get her out of hospital 250 miles from home days before her death
AN autistic woman’s 250-mile move to a mental health unit “broke her” before she died aged just 20, an inquest heard.
Lindsey Bridges, 43, from Bournemouth, said her daughter Lauren was “screaming hysterically, begging me to get her out” of the Priory Cheadle Royal, near Stockport.
Lauren died at the privately-run facility in February 2022, seven months after she was moved with just one hour’s notice, Stockport Coroner’s Court heard.
Ms Bridges said the transfer left Lauren “distressed and traumatised”, adding her mental health “deteriorated rapidly”.
She said: “It broke her and our family.”
In the days before her death she made a series of phone calls to her mother asking to be allowed to leave, the court heard.
Ms Bridges had previously slammed the mental health system for failing her child.
She told the Daily Mirror: “She was missing her family so much and got worse simply by being in hospital and not having any treatment.
“For years she has been locked away, often not seeing daylight or offered exercise for weeks on end, with no plan to meet her needs psychiatrically.
“And little or no therapy or therapeutic activities to stimulate her.”
The five-week inquest opened today, after previously being abandoned in February.
The straight A-student had been admitted eight times to mental health units before going to Priory Cheadle Royal in July 2021.
Ms Bridges got a heartbreaking phone call in the middle of the night to tell her that her daughter had been found unresponsive seven months later.
Lauren’s family rushed six hours to be by her bedside, but by the next day, on February 25, 2022, a clinical decision was made to withdraw her life support.
Her death came just a month before mental health blogger Beth Matthews, 26, passed away after swallowing a poisonous substance at the same hospital.
And fellow patient Deseree Fitzpatrick, 30, died there in January 2021, when she choked on her own vomit after being given medication that sedated her gag reflex.
In May this year, the Care Quality Commission watchdog rated the care offered at Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal “inadequate” in a damning report.
Ms Bridges said she hoped the upsetting inquest would shed light on her tragic death.
She said: “Lauren showed everyone who knew her how to be a better person.
“She was the kindest, most caring, considerate human being I’m sure I’ll ever meet.
“She gave so much joy and love to everyone that knew her and made me the proudest parent.
“Lauren wasn’t just my daughter — she was my best friend and she was beautiful inside and out.
“It’s difficult to find the words to describe what these last few months and trying to come to terms with Lauren’s death has been like.
“The pain that has been left in our lives is unbearable. I’d do anything to have Lauren back in our lives but sadly I know that’s not possible.
“I know the inquest is going to be incredibly upsetting, but I owe it to Lauren to honour her memory by at least establishing the answers as to why she died.”
The inquest continues.