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Mr. Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab): Is it not also the case that many such deaths are put down to accidents? For example, many fit and healthy teenagers who die in swimming pools have their deaths put down to drowning, but the real cause is a heart condition.
Ms Taylor: That is absolutely correct. Many youngsters' conditions remain undiagnosed, although they have presented symptoms to general practitioners. They are sent away with statements such as, "You are probably suffering from stress", "It could be depression", or "It may be asthma." That is a serious problem. Although the symptoms are well documented academically, they are not generally known to GPs.
Mr. David Stewart: On a similar subject, does my hon. Friend agree with the analysis in the magazine, "Heart", that suggested that 80 per cent. of deaths among athletes follow vigorous exercise?
Ms Taylor: Many hon. Friends are demonstrating their knowledge of the problems. That is right: the young people involved are often keen athletes who are putting a strain on their heart. They have shown symptoms that, sadly, were undiagnosed. They could still be competent athletes—some have Olympic potential. They require control mechanisms so that they live to enjoy their athleticism. Sadly, that does not happen.
I want to mention some people who died suddenly without necessarily receiving a diagnosis to explain the reason for their deaths. I shall begin with some of the stars of the world. The Hungarian footballer Miklos Feher played for Benfica in Portugal and died at the age of 24. A Georgian football player died in his sleep. He was 23 and had shown no sign of illness. Later, he was found to have suffered from a cardiomyopathy. The same condition killed the Cameroon international football player, Marc-Vivien Foe, and Terry Yorath's young son, Daniel. Those are high-profile cases, which show that young, apparently fit people throughout Europe as well as Britain suffer from the tragic fate that we are discussing. All those cases presented comparable characteristics.
Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con): I hope that my intervention is not untimely. It is on a related subject. The hon. Lady is making a forceful speech, as she did when she addressed Cardiac Risk in the Young—CRY—earlier this week.
Constituents of mine lost a 17-year-old son from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome only a few weeks ago. A fit teenager suddenly died. My constituents were subject to a police investigation because of the sudden
nature of the death. It is bad enough to lose a child out of the blue, but it is doubly distressing to be subject to investigation, albeit for understandable reasons. Will the hon. Lady take it on board that other aspects need to be considered and that parents who have suffered a terrible tragedy and have the blow compounded need to be treated more sensitively?
Ms Taylor: The House has responded to the hon. Gentleman. Unfortunately, the circumstances that he mentioned are replicated time and again. When a young person dies, the immediate thought is, "Was there drug abuse? Were the parents involved?" That is an outrage. Sadly, that occurs even when symptoms that suggested a condition were left undiagnosed. I shall stress that continually. The hon. Gentleman made a timely intervention.
We are considering young, athletic people who die suddenly, sometimes with little or no medical warning. There is often no prescribed medical treatment and no acknowledgement that the disease that killed a young person is genetically inherited. According to the coroner, the majority die of cardiac failure—natural causes. That is unacceptable.
Ms Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab/Co-op): Later, I hope to have the opportunity to talk about a constituent who has a specific heart condition. There appears to be a range of heart conditions that can lead to sudden death. Will my hon. Friend cover that point? The issue is especially complex because not only one heart condition is involved, and the affected families could suffer from a range of conditions that could be difficult to detect.
Ms Taylor: My hon. Friend has anticipated a part of my speech. Of course, I shall respond to that point in detail as I progress.
To emphasise the importance of the issue, I point out that The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror often produce reports that outline the problem of heart defects that strike the young and the fit. It is a common theme of many of the articles that I have read. I suggest to my hon. Friend the Minister that if such cases are reported again and again, one would like to believe that the medical fraternity must recognise the problem and begin to accept that there must be better and different solutions. The Bill would introduce screening procedures that would help to prevent sudden death.
I have mentioned some of the stars who suffered sudden death, and I should now like to refer to some cases of the stars in our homes who have been affected. Ewan Bellamy was 31. He was returning from New Zealand with his pregnant wife when he suffered sudden death. His family requested that its members should be referred to a specialist for screening. The local national health service trust denied the request.
Ellis Curran, a fit and healthy 28-year-old, had shown symptoms. He died in his wife's arms after playing with his children. Tests showed that he suffered from a hypertrophic cardiomyopathy—an inherited condition that is well known and well documented throughout the
medical profession. He showed symptoms but received no treatment. Earlier, I mentioned Marc-Vivien Foe, who had shown clear symptoms, including chest pains that were more severe than would ordinarily be expected. The condition was undiagnosed, and the post mortem showed that he died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.Joanne Fotheringham was 24 and lived in the Western Isles. She went to bed and never woke up. A statement said that she died from an undetected heart condition. With all our medical competence, do we seriously accept that an academically well-documented medical condition should go undetected?
Alison Linforth was a bright and sparky 16-year-old from Birmingham. On the first day of her A-level course, she sat down and died at her desk. The pathologist told her family that she had died of Long QT syndrome. The coroner's verdict was natural causes. That is unacceptable. She had complained of chest pains but they were not investigated.
Lisa Harley was a 27-year-old nurse. She had complained of tiredness and fainting, which is closely associated with a potentially fatal condition. She was diagnosed with depression and died of a heart condition. We all know from medical evidence that an implantable cardio defibrillator could have saved her life. After her death, the family insisted on screening for the rest of its members. Her sister was diagnosed with Long QT syndrome. She was fitted with an ICD. Her heart stopped last October but the device kicked it back into action.
Several doctors dismissed Alex Edwards's symptoms. He was a 12-year-old promising young cricketer. His problem was undiagnosed. Laura Moss was 13 and a national swimmer, who was tipped as a future Olympic champion. She died at the poolside, watched by 200 school friends. Her parents watched the young female from Weymouth die. Youngsters are showing symptoms of potentially killer diseases. Again and again, the medical profession does not diagnose or respond to them.
Miss Anne Begg (Aberdeen, South) (Lab): Obviously, in many cases the symptoms were not picked up. As general practitioners are in the front line of the medical profession, does the Bill contain anything that will help them to pick up the symptoms to do the necessary screening and ensure that the proper treatment is provided?
Ms Taylor: I can respond positively to my hon. Friend. Clause 1 clearly identifies how crucial GPs are in the train of diagnosis to preventing or defining a potential problem. In relation to that, the proposal in the Bill is that the conditions that we know to be tied into potentially fatal diseases should be clearly chronicled so that general practitioners are able to understand what a young person might be suffering from. So, yes, the Bill responds to the problem that my hon. Friend has just outlined.
Dr. Brian Iddon (Bolton, South-East) (Lab): I congratulate my hon. Friend on highlighting the fact that there are many preventable deaths among young and older people. It has been well known for a long time
that approximately one in five Down's syndrome babies are born with a heart defect, but until just a few years ago there was no routine screening of such babies, either at birth or shortly afterwards. As a result, many of them died in the early years of their life. Will my hon. Friend join me in congratulating the Down's Syndrome Association for highlighting these problems? I, in turn, would like to congratulate the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young—CRY—on stimulating the introduction of this Bill through my hon. Friend. Does this not illustrate the important role that charities play in bringing relatively unknown problems to the Floor of the House, which can result in the saving of quite a few lives?
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