Inquest Hears Sickle Cell Patient Faced Ridicule at Hospital
The family of Veronique Mwembo, a 32-year-old mother from Norwich who lived with sickle cell disease, has told an inquest she faced "ridicule" from hospital staff when she sought urgent care for her pain.
Area coroner Yvonne Blake said Mwembo was being treated at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) for bacterial infections. She died on 23 January after going into cardiac arrest during a video call with her brother. She could not be resuscitated. The coroner gave a narrative conclusion: Mwembo had taken pain medicines and antibiotics, supplied as tablets, incorrectly, which damaged her blood vessels and led to the cardiac arrest.
A life with acute pain
Born in 1993 in Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mwembo came to the UK with her family in 2006 after fleeing civil war. Her family called her "the kindest, most joyful, and warmest person". She worked as a childminder and had a son in 2023.
The inquest heard she struggled with acute pain throughout her life and was regularly in and out of hospital. Later she developed mental health problems, including "auditory hallucinations" that grew worse around sickle cell crises. Her family said her mental health declined after she repeatedly felt staff were dismissing her pain.
In November 2025 she was admitted with infections and abscesses in her arms. She had shown signs of recovery before she collapsed.
What her brother said
Her older brother, Emmie Mwembo, works at the NNUH as an associate clinical practitioner. He described a "clear correlation" between her illness and her mental health struggles. Specialist staff treated her very well, he said. But front-line staff in A&E and on general wards lacked the training to see that her pain was "real, severe and clinically urgent".
He said she overheard floor staff call her a "frequent flyer", say "she's back again" or whisper that "she's only here for the morphine". Sometimes she waited up to six hours for the right pain relief. NICE guidance says it should be given within 30 minutes of arrival at A&E.
"She should have felt safe but she was misunderstood and hospital became a place that was very frightening," he said.
John James, chief executive of the Sickle Cell Society, said being seen as drug-seeking was "not uncommon" for patients. He pointed to the society's 2021 report No-One Is Listening, which found systemic failures in A&E and general ward care for sickle cell patients.
An NNUH representative told the inquest the hospital had spent the past year setting up a service for people with red cell diseases. Sickle cell training for front-line staff has been offered since September, but it is not mandatory. The coroner said she would write to the trust's chief executive to urge it to consider making the training mandatory.
Source: BBC News