The wife of a noted musician has raised concerns about his medical care following his sudden death while he was being treated in a Leeds hospital.
Dumile Daniel Thompson - a successful rapper whose stage name was MF Doom - was being treated in St James's Hospital after he had suffered a severe and 'rare' reaction to blood pressure medication which he had just been prescribed.
Mr Thompson, 49, who was known to his family as Daniel, died in October 2020 after his condition suddenly deteriorated while he was in hospital, an inquest heard. He had been living in Leeds at the time.
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His wife Jasmin paid tribute to her husband, calling him a "a wonderful, talented man taken too soon and missed by everyone."
She said Daniel had been fit and well but had developed a number of health conditions among them kidney disease which had led to weight gain and anxiety.
In a statement, Mrs Thompson said she and Daniel had five children together and had moved to the UK from the United States in 2010.
She said Daniel had been prescribed a new medication but, after just two doses, he developed breathing problems and had gone to the A&E department in Leeds. She said Daniel's tongue and throat had started to swell.
Following his death, Mrs Thompson raised a number of concerns about her husband's treatment at St James's Hospital and claimed he had been unable to alert medical staff to his deteriorating condition as his 'buzzer' was out of reach.
Mrs Thompson said her husband had phoned her in distress from the hospital as his swelling was getting worse and he was having trouble breathing. She claimed he had been placed in a room containing an 'old metal desk' and books, saying the room appeared to be "a hospital room a very long time ago," she told Wakefield Coroner's Court.
She said: "I don't want to say it was an old storage room...it wasn't set up. Maybe it was a room a long time ago. It did have a bed in it."
However, medics said the room was one of several similar rooms that were part of the emergency department.
Mrs Thompson was still on the phone to her distressed husband when she used a second phone to directly alert nurses who were on duty, she told the inquest hearing.
Mrs Thompson revealed that she couldn't visit her husband in hospital due to Covid pandemic restrictions. She said: "I was not able to see him until the 31st (of October) - that's when the respirator was turned off that was helping him breathe."
The inquest heard that on October 21 Daniel had complained that he couldn't breathe and tried to get off his hospital trolley before he collapsed and suffered respiratory arrest.
Mrs Thompson's legal representatives have raised questions about how often Daniel was checked by medical staff and why there was a two-hour delay in giving him medication for his swollen throat.
The inquest heard that Daniel's medical records could not be accessed in Leeds as they were held in London.
The inquest heard that Daniel's condition was being monitored in hospital and he had shown signs that he was a little better. He had eaten some food and had some water. His oxygen levels was said to be good and he was able to talk to doctors.
Doctors said the swelling of his tongue, throat and lips was a 'rare' side effect of taking ACE inhibitors which had brought on a condition called angiodema, where part of the body suddenly becomes swollen.
Following Daniel's death, the hospital trust carried out a "serious incident investigation" to see what lessons could be learned.
A number of recommendations were made in relation to the management of patients diagnosed with angiodema.
The inquest continues.
