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Beckie Borg |
Daughter’s death reveals risks for rest of her family
THE mother of a teenage beauty therapist who died suddenly from a condition that affects just 500 people a year has discovered she herself is at risk from a syndrome which could have killed her mother.
Toni Scoullar and her relatives were reassured on Tuesday that they can be treated for the rare hereditary genetic disorder known as Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes (SADS). As reported in the New Journal last month, they only found out they were at risk when Ms Scoullar’s daughter, Rebekah Borg, 18, died suddenly at home in Lyme Street, Camden Town, in February.
A St Pancras inquest heard this week that a post-mortem revealed Beckie, as she was known to family and friends, died from a type of SADS called Long QT Syndrome, an abnormality of the heart’s electrical signals that can cause irregularities in the heart beat.
Ms Scoullar told the inquest Beckie’s grandmother died when she was 24. Dr Mary Sheppard, a heart expert at Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, said it was likely she died from the same condition as her granddaughter.
Ms Scoullar has since been found to suffer from the condition and her son Bradley is undergoing tests. Her grandson is also being investigated as potentially at risk.
She was urged by Dr Sheppard to track down her estranged sister, who also has a daughter, to warn them.
Ms Scoullar, whose husband William held her hand throughout the hearing, told the inquest she was just four when her mother died. She said: “My grandmother told me she’d got up for work one morning and me and mum were lying in bed. My nan said: ‘Do you want a cup of tea’ and went into the kitchen. She heard my mother gasp for breath and faint. She died of a heart attack on her way to hospital.”
Dr Sheppard told Ms Scoullar: “It’s treatable for you and your son.” She added that as Beckie had almost no symptoms, her death could not have been prevented.” A verdict of death by natural causes was recorded.
Last month, Beckie’s mother told the Camden New Journal how she was campaigning to raise awareness of the condition. Paying tribute to her daughter, she said: “Beckie was the kind of girl who would do anything for anybody to make them feel happy. She’s left such a big void in our lives. We’re all a bit lost.”
To make a donation to SADS research, visit www.justgiving.com/beckiesbigheart/. |
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