Painkiller error led to doctor’s death

Dr Emma Grandidge

A GROTTON doctor with an impressive list of charitable accomplishments found herself in a battle with arthritis of the hips.

And despite a dream posting on board a cruise ship, Dr Emma Grandidge (31) needed to take the powerful painkiller co-proxamol.

Tired from a long flight to join the ship off Los Angeles, Dr Grandidge took a little too much, and that led to her death, an Oldham inquest heard yesterday.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, the deputy coroner, Barrie Williams, said: “It was the opinion of the medical examiner in Los Angeles that with the pain-killing medicine she took there was a high risk of toxicity and a high risk of death.

“Co-proxamol has now been withdrawn by the authorities over here because of the rapidity of its taking effect and the risks from a small overdose.

“Emma had had a difficult flight out there. She was exhausted and there was pain in her hips.

“She may have taken a little more to feel better.”

Earlier, Mr Williams said Dr Grandidge had one of the most impressive CVs he had ever seen.

She worked for the O’Grady youth club for the disabled, Oldham Mountain Rescue Team, the Air Ambulance service and the Ocean Youth Club.

Dr Grandidge, lived in Ashlea Grove,

After the inquest, Mr Grandidge said: “Emma had so much enthusiasm for life. She was always planning to do something.

“The drug that she took was powerful, but it allowed her to get on with life.”