Permission to Repost
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Criona.htm
The Sophia Mirza Archive, compiled by her mother, Criona Wilson.
The life and early death of a severely affected ME patient.
Hospital doctors have a wry saying that "physicians bury their mistakes - psychiatrists lock theirs up". In a sense, Sophia Mirza defied both of these options. Her forced detention within a mental hospital was reversed within weeks. And although she died as a consequence, her voice lives on. She still bears witness against those who persecuted her.
That her voice can still be heard is due to her mother Criona Wilson who,
uniquely, has published her daughter's confidential medical case notes
online. With visionary foresight, Sophia tape-recorded crucial interviews
between herself and her doctors, and the transcripts form part of the
archive. Sophia was lucid, rational and defiant to the last.
ME patients are unfortunate with their doctors. While most other patient groups have a trusting relationship with the medical profession, far too often ME patients complain of neglect, abuse, misdiagnosis and stigma. Our
patients have a visceral dislike of the psychiatric construct of ME, and for
good reason. Besides the disadvantages of misdiagnosis, it forces them into
a clinical environment where the validity of their opinions is routinely
delegitimized, where their right to give informed consent is often not
respected, and where in some cases they may be subjected to involuntary
detention. These are fears which lurk in the minds of all ME patients. For
Sophia Mirza they became a nightmare reality.
This online archive provides a compelling narrative of Sophia's last years.
But it is a painful and frightening experience to read her case notes. For
this is the kind of tragedy that has the potential to affect many other
patients, and from which many of us have escaped only by good luck. The
narrative has the quality of a real life drama documentary, and hopefully
will raise awareness among an audience beyond the confines of the ME patient
community. There are close up factual portraits of patient and family, the
psychiatrist, the GP and the social worker. The ineptitude of the NHS in
respect of ME degrades many patients. But the nature of the disease inflicts
its own humiliations on patients and family. The grim reality of life for
the severely affected is described here in unsparing detail. It required
considerable moral courage for Criona to publish this archive unedited.
It is possible for good to come out of tragedy. Sally Clark, Trupti Patel
and Angela Cannings suffered miscarriages of justices: but now it is much
more difficult to falsely accuse bereaved young mothers of Munchausen's by
Proxy. Sally Clark and Sophia Mirza were both martyrs, literally, to medical failure at institutional level. But Sally Clark's case fatally undermined
"Meadow's Law". Hopefully Sophia's tragedy will have the same effect on
"Wessely's Law".
Horace Reid, 1 May 2008.
=============
Downloading the files.
Sophia's case notes were first posted online by her mother on 28 April 2008
at
http://www.sophiaandme.org.uk/
With Criona's permission, I have downloaded the files and collected them in
easy to read pdf format.
Criona arranged the documents in four sections.
1. The red section gives a chronological list of 213 documents from Sophia's
medical records. A large and representative selection are published online.
2. The blue section contains Social Services documentation, including the
warrant to search for and remove Sophia, and the report from the independent
investigating officer.
3. The purple section contains correspondence with the Attorney General's
Office.
4. The fourth section, (also red) contains Criona's correspondence with the
GMC in respect of six doctors.
For ease of downloading I have divided them as follows.
1. Sophia's medical records:
MirzaGMC1 (7.5MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaGMC1.pdf
MirzaGMC2 (6.8MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaGMC2.pdf
MirzaGMC3 (7.4MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaGMC3.pdf
MirzaGMC4 (5.9MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaGMC4.pdf
2. Social Services:
MirzaSS1 (5.5MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaSS1.pdf
MirzaSS2 (4.3MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaSS2.pdf
MirzaSS3 (7.4MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaSS3.pdf
3. Attorney General's Office:
SophiaLeg1 (5.8MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/SophiaLeg1.pdf
SophiaLeg2 (5.5MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/SophiaLeg2.pdf
4. GMC Correspondence:
MirzaDrs (6.4MB), http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Sophia/MirzaDrs.pdf
Note: you can get a copy of the original Adobe Acrobat Readerfor Windows,
Mac or Linux here ...
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html
For a more compact Windows pdf reader with a small file size use the Foxit
Reader here ...
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php
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http://www.meactionuk.org.uk
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