A U.K. teenager who has a phobia of toilets has died after going 8 weeks without clearing her bowels.
According to U.K. news media, The Independent, 16 year-old Emily Titterington, who also suffers from mild autism, had died of a heart attack as her lack of bowel movements had left her with compressed chest cavity and displaced organs.
Post-mortem examinations revealed that Emily had suffered a "massive extension of the large bowel". The medical examiner told the media that it was "like nothing I have ever seen before - it was dramatic."
A coroner's inquest found that Emily's life could have been saved with the appropriate medical treatment, but Emily herself had refused any form of treatment and rejected going to the hospital.
Emily's family doctor Dr Alistair James said that Emily's mother, 59 year-old Geraldine, had fought and tried to force her daughter to be medically examined in the period leading up to her death, but to no avail.
Dr James said that he had prescribed laxatives but had not examined Emily's abdomen. "Had I done so, we would be having a different conversation. Her death could have been avoided with the right treatment at the right point."
Emily collapsed while at home in St Austell, Cornwall on 8 February 2013. Paramedics attempted to revive her but she was later pronounced dead in hospital.
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