The co-proxamol (7)

A comment on my last post asked if it was believable that Dr Kelly never took a tablet.  I think that this question deserves a totally new post from me.

The medical term for difficulty with swallowing is "dysphagia" and more can be read about it here http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Dysphagia/Pages/definition.aspx  I believe in Dr Kelly's case it has been suggested that he didn't have any apparent difficulty in swallowing food, his dysphagia was confined to swallowing tablets.  This sounds like a very unusual condition but I have had the odd occasion when I have found it extremely difficult to swallow a tablet, almost to the extent of giving up.  Personally I'm not particularly keen on taking tablets but there are occasions when one just needs to do so.

If Dr Kelly did have an aversion to taking tablets the question to be asked is whether he just didn't like the idea of taking a medicine or was there a physical difficulty that stopped him so doing.  This is part of a report by Sharon Churcher in the Mail on Sunday relating how Dr Kelly's confidante Mai Pederson was surprised to hear that he had taken an overdose of co-proxamol:

Ms Pederson’s Washington DC lawyer, Mark Zaid, has made available to The Mail on Sunday parts of her final statement to Thames Valley Police, given on September 1, 2003.

Its ten pages would appear critical, since they describe Iraqi death threats and the incident with the laser. She also stated that she was bewildered about how Dr Kelly could have taken an overdose, as he suffered from a disorder that made it difficult for him to swallow pills.

‘I was so confused when I heard he had swallowed a load of painkillers,’ she told the officers.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1050919/David-Kellys-closest-female-confidante-COULDNT-killed-himself.html#ixzz1yz8Aqyrv

It sounds to me then that it was difficult rather than totally impossible for him to swallow pills.  Regarding the anti-malarial drug "Paludrine" commented on following my last post that seems to be supplied in tablet form usually from a quick look at internet entries about it.  If Dr Kelly was suffering from a limited form of dysphagia it might be something that he didn't discuss with the family.  Dr Warner's testimony suggests that it was in 1994 that he last prescribed medication for Dr Kelly: this may not have been tablets necessarily, it could have been a skin ointment for example.  We just don't know.

In summary, we really aren't informed enough about possible dysphagia in the case of Dr Kelly.  If Ms Pederson had informed detectives about Dr Kelly having problems with swallowing tablets then Hutton was remiss in not investigating further in open court.

It was Hutton incidentally who asked the police to go to America to talk to Mai Pederson.