I was horrified to read that an 80-year-old woman with coeliac disease died after vomiting as a result of being given Weetabix in hospital, and even more shocked to read that a consultant geriatrician told the inquest that “coeliac disease did not usually cause vomiting” (Report, 17 June).
Let me tell you that, as an otherwise fit and healthy 61-year-old coeliac, if I eat even a smidgen of gluten I vomit repeatedly for hours, and I have twice have passed out as a result and injured myself.
When we can manage our own diets we are safe, but in places such as hospitals and care homes we are at the mercy of those checking our food for us.
Once diagnosed, we are expected to manage our own condition; ironically, reactions to gluten, should we make a mistake, become more pronounced once we have given it up. No one ever asks us about this, and so it is dangerous and arrogant to assume otherwise.
Mary Gildea
Charlton, London
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