Family of 16-year-old who died from a blood clot weeks after taking the contraceptive pill to ease period pain slam NHS ‘after GP told her there were “no red flags” to go to hospital – even while she was vomiting’

The family of a 16-year-old girl who died from a blood clot on the brain weeks after taking the contraceptive pill slammed the care she received from the NHS after a GP told her there were ‘no red flags’.

Layla Khan from Immingham, Lincolnshire died last Wednesday after a scan revealed a blood clot on her brain.

The ‘beautiful and intelligent’ schoolgirl started suffering from agonising menstrual cycles and was advised to take a contraceptive pill by pals to ease her symptoms. She began to take them on November 25 but by December 5 she started having headaches – and by the end of the week she began vomiting. 

When her worried family contacted the 111 NHS helpline they were told there were ‘no red flags’ and they should just take her for a check up the following morning.

But last Monday evening, she began screaming in pain and collapsed in the bathroom at home. Her family then drove her to Hull Royal Infirmary where a blood clot on the brain was identified by a CT scan.

She underwent an emergency operation but died two days later, leaving her family heartbroken.

Her aunt Jenna Braithwaite said: ‘On the Sunday night, she was being sick, a lot. She was basically vomiting every 30 minutes so they got a GP appointment on the Monday morning, they took her to the GP. Even though she was being sick the whole time she was at the GP’s, they gave her anti-sickness tablets and told her that they thought it was a stomach bug.

Layla Khan from Immingham, Lincolnshire died last Wednesday after a scan revealed a blood clot on her brain 

‘They said there were no red flags to go to the hospital, and to go to the hospital on Wednesday if it continued.’

READ MORE: Tributes for tragic teen who died from blood clots after taking contraceptive pill

On Monday, she began screaming in pain and so the family called 111 again. They were told to make an appointment with the emergency doctors, but there were no appointments available.

The family, from Immingham, then rushed her to the hospital in Grimsby. There, the family were made to wait four hours for treatment in the accident and emergency department, while Layla was slipping in and out of consciousness and suffering seizures.

A nurse spotted Layla struggling and she was taken to another room, where she was given seizure medication. At this point, the doctors were still saying it could be an infection, and after 12 hours in the hospital, Layla was put on a ventilator.

Layla was then given a CT scan, which detected a blood clot in her brain. She was then moved to Hull Royal Infirmary, here in Yorkshire, where she died on December 13.

Just days earlier on November 25, Layla had started taking the contraceptive pill Rigevidon, which lists blood clots as one of its rare but potential side effects. 

The family believes this could have been a potential cause for the clot in her brain, and that doctors should have noticed this sooner.

The ‘beautiful and intelligent’ schoolgirl started suffering from agonising menstrual cycles and was advised to take a contraceptive pill by pals to ease her symptoms 

Jenna said: ‘We feel like there’s someone to blame, we feel like Grimsby Hospital didn’t go quick enough or go fast enough to save her, we feel like she could have been saved if she wasn’t sat in A&E for so long.

‘If the doctor had realised when she’d gone and said noticed the pill. The fact that they said there were no red flags and days later, she’s brain dead, it’s incomprehensible.’

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust’s Kate Wood, Group Chief Medical Officer, said: ‘I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family at this very sad time. 

‘As happens in these cases, we are working with other agencies to investigate this further.’

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