Reece died after medics missed signs of meningitis (Picture: SWNS)
A heartbroken widow has issued a warning after her young Premier League scout husband died of meningitis after doctors dismissed his symptoms.
Dad-of-two Reece Darcheville died in 2017 after medics failed to recognise the seriousness of his condition and sent him home without a brain scan.
The 31-year-old from Hackney, East London, was re-admitted to hospital just four days later and underwent emergency surgery, but suffered severe brain damage and died nine days later.
Dissatisfied with his care, Mr Darcheville’s widow and childhood sweetheart, Shenna, instructed lawyers to investigate her husband’s care.
The family have now been awarded an undisclosed settlement by Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, who admitted liability and giving ‘suboptimal’ care to Mr Darcheville.
Mrs Darcheville says she feels ‘let down’ by doctors who missed chances to potentially save her husband’s life.
Reece scouted for the Premiere League (Picture: SWNS)
She now hopes to raise awareness of the early signs of meningitis – a rare but ‘well-known’ complication of untreated sinusitis – and fight for improvements in care in the hope similar tragic deaths can be avoided in the future.
‘Even after all these years, it’s almost impossible to try and begin to describe the profound effect that losing Reece has had on our lives,’ mother-of-two Mrs Darcheville said.
‘In all the time I knew Reece I had never seen him sick, so when he started with his symptoms I knew it was totally out of character. He tried to carry on and go to work but he was too poorly. He even had to miss football training which he never did. It’s difficult not to think that when he needed help the most he was let down.’
In mid-September 2017, Mr Darcheville began vomiting and complaining of a headache.
After developing pain and pressure around his eyes and struggling to sleep, a GP prescribed antibiotics on September 21, believing him to be suffering from sinus infection sinusitis.
Four days later he attended Homerton Hospital in Hackney, where he was examined.
Reece left behind two sons and his wife (Picture: SWNS)
But the youth football coach and PE Teacher, who scouted for Premier League clubs including Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur, was sent home to finish his course of antibiotics without having a brain scan.
Mr Darcheville’s symptoms continued to persist, and on September 28 he and his wife – seriously worried about his symptoms – attended a further GP appointment.
The GP told them he was concerned that the severity of his symptoms was unusual for sinusitis.
But Mr Darcheville, who co-founded Islington’s AC United youth football team, was prescribed different antibiotics and anti-sickness tablets and sent home again, after being told he’d need a brain scan if his condition didn’t improve.
His wife called an ambulance the following morning after he became incoherent and confused, and he was rushed to Homerton Hospital before being transferred to intensive care at another hospital.
Mr Darcheville was then placed on a ventilator and transferred for surgery later that day.
Following surgery, a CT scan showed …read more
Source:: Metro
