Trial By Error

Author: David Tuller

  • A Deeper Dive into the Inquest’s “Findings and Conclusions”

    Last Friday, August 9th, assistant coroner Deborah Archer read in court her “findings and conclusions” in the inquest into the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, the 27-year-old woman from Exeter, UK. Three hospitalizations in the months before Maeve died in October, 2021, failed to resolve her failing nutritional status. Over the course of two weeks…

  • Valerie Eliot Smith on the Inquest Findings

    On Friday, Deborah Archer, the coroner in the inquest into the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, issued her factual findings. The bottom line: Maeve died from “malnutrition caused by severe ME.” Archer found that the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital and others involved in her care acted properly. She rejected the request of Maeve’s parents…

  • Whitney Dafoe and Naomi Whittington Reflect on Severe ME and the Inquest into the Death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill

    On Friday, August 9th (tomorrow), Deborah Archer, the coroner who presided over the inquest into the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, will issue her findings of fact. Following that, she has tentatively scheduled another day of testimony on September 27th. The testimony during the two-week inquest, held in Exeter, England, UK, revealed starkly that the…

  • Sean O’Neill’s Inquest Statement

    Last Thursday, both of Maeve Boothby O’Neill’s parents testified at the inquest into her 2021 death from ME-related complications. (I earlier posted Sarah Boothby’s statement as read into the record.) It was the penultimate day of two weeks of court sessions in Exeter, in the south-east of England, UK. The coroner, Deborah Archer, is scheduled…

  • Sarah Boothby’s Statement to the Inquest

    The two weeks of public hearings in the inquest into the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill ended on Friday. (The coroner, Deborah Archer, plans to issue her findings on the facts this coming Friday.) Last Thursday, both of Maeve’s parents testified. Her mom, Sarah Boothby, took the stand first. She read most of the statement…

  • Dr Weir’s Letters on Treatment of Maeve Boothby O’Neill

    William Weir is an infectious disease physician in London who has treated many ME/CFS patients. He has been involved in some of the ongoing cases in England in which severely ill teenage girls and young women, and their families, have been in conflict with their local hospitals about the best approach to treatment. In general,…

  • Guardian Publishes Response to Boothby O’Neill Inquest from Ranking Member of the CBT/GET Ideological Brigades

    My heart sinks every time I see another ridiculous article from a member of the CBT/GET ideological brigades. They repeat the same bogus arguments that we’ve heard for years—arguments that have already been refuted time and again. So let’s take a look at the most recent iteration of this tiresome dog-and-pony show—physician Alastair Miller’s reflections…

  • Maeve Boothby O’Neill Inquest Highlights Major Systemic Failures at UK’s National Health Service and in Medical Education

    Heartbreaking. Infuriating. Mind-boggling. Those three adjectives are as good as any to describe the testimony heard during the first week of the two-week inquest into the death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill, 27, being held in Exeter, a university town in southwest England. Deborah Archer, the no-nonsense assistant coroner who has kept firm control of the…

  • “Effort Preference”? WTF?

    When I was a young gay man in the 1980s (I’m 67), a common term for sexual orientation was “sexual preference.” This phrase always struck me as weird. Preference? The urges I felt were not a “preference.” Preference clearly implies a choice—as in, I prefer to live in the city rather than the countryside. I…

  • More Debate About Treatment of Severe ME/CFS

    Last month, Jonathan Edwards, an emeritus professor of medicine at University College London and an advocate for patients with ME/CFS, published a statement on a pre-print server about managing the nutritional needs of patients with severe disease. (I wrote about it here.) A few days ago, a group of parents and carers released an open…

  • New Paper Seeks to Reframe Poor Findings in CODES Trial of CBT for Non-Epileptic Seizures

    The CODES trial investigated cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) as a treatment for dissociative seizures (DS), a sub-category of what is now called functional neurological disorder (FND). The intervention was a course of CBT specifically designed to address the variety of factors presumed to be triggering the seizures. (I have previously critiqued CODES here, here, and…

  • Professor Edwards’ Take on Nutrition and Severe ME Cases

    Jonathan Edwards, a professor emeritus of medicine at University College London, has released a document involving the provision of care for people with severe ME, an issue at the core of some recent high-profile cases in England. The document, which Professor Edwards posted on a pre-print server, is called “Management of Nutritional Failure in People…