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Geraldine Atkinson |
Sister to trek in memory of doc
Tragic holiday woman’s brain cyst death
THE sister and neighbour of a trainee Royal Free doctor who died from a rare brain cyst while on holiday in Iceland are planning to go on fund-raising hiking holidays this summer.
An inquest on Tuesday heard how Geraldine Atkinson, 24, of King Henry’s Road in Primrose Hill, was found dead in her bed by friends she was sharing a room with while on holiday in Reykjavik on February 7.
Her sister Mary, 17, is now planning to go walking in Iceland in August to raise money for Amnesty International, a charity Geraldine supported.
Neighbour Pippa Patterson is trekking hundreds of miles along the Santiago de Compostela trail in Spain.
St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard how the night before her death, Geraldine had planned to go out with room-mates, but turned back minutes later complaining of a headache.
Her mother Elizabeth Atkinson said she was told by Icelandic police that the holidaymakers came back later that night to find her daughter had collapsed.
The pair put Geraldine to bed and left early the next morning to go sightseeing, only realising she was dead when they returned.
She died from a benign cyst that blocked a ventricle in her brain, which in turn limited fluid movement and created pressure. Mrs Atkinson, a university exam invigilator from Highgate, said: “She had a history of migraines, one of which was severe – she was in Thailand in early October, she checked herself into a medical centre and was given anti-migraine medication. There was no follow-up treatment.”
She was never given a brain scan by doctors or medics.
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid ruled she died from natural causes.
Speaking outside court, Mrs Atkinson said fundraising for some of the charities Geraldine believed in – and one she volunteered for called Kith & Kids, a charity for children with learning difficulties – was the only worthwhile outcome of her death.
She added: “I’d like something good to come out of what’s happened because it’s unbelievably terrible.”
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