Health New Zealand acting chief medical officer for Canterbury, Claire Doocey, apologised for the distress Brooke experienced.
“Health New Zealand takes these concerns very seriously. We are committed to engaging directly with the patient to fully understand what has occurred.
“This will ensure we have a clear and accurate understanding of the situation,” Doocey said.
Health New Zealand did not respond to questions about Brooke’s treatment, care and suspected cause of her symptoms.
Brooke said her sleep problems began after she was diagnosed with significant deficiencies in vitamin D and iron and was prescribed high-dose supplements in early July.
By Tuesday, July 7, she was unable to sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time.
By Thursday evening, she said she became disoriented, highly emotional and began seeing shadows, so she contacted Healthline.
Healthline advised her to seek medical care for an assessment.
Brooke said on arrival at an after-hours clinic, she had to wait about two hours before being seen despite her high heart rate.
When she saw a doctor, Brooke claimed he first focused on her mental health.
“I explained repeatedly that my mental health had been stable for many years.”
Brooke said she felt her physical concerns were dismissed and she was given information about mental health support and sleep exercises.
The doctor also prescribed her medication for insomnia.
A woman who couldn’t sleep for 102 hours straight says doctors dismissed her physical symptoms. Photo / Getty Images
“Instead of helping me sleep, the medication appeared to have the opposite effect. I became extremely alert,” Brooke claimed.
After multiple hours, she still had not slept, so contacted the clinic again because her condition had worsened.
Brooke said she was told to attend the Emergency Department for a psychiatric assessment.
After she arrived at Christchurch Hospital ED, her heart rate remained high.
Blood tests and an ECG were performed, but Brooke claims she was not clearly informed what the blood tests were for.
“One of the first questions I was asked was about my mental health and whether I had been taking drugs or alcohol.”
The hospital then attempted to involve the Mental Health Crisis Team, which she initially declined.
“I knew my mental health was not the issue. I knew I was suffering because I had not slept,” Brooke said.
She was then discharged and was given more medication, but that night, her condition became “terrifying”.
After Brooke’s hallucinations worsened, her mother contacted the Mental Health Crisis Team and Brooke was advised to return to the ED.
The Mental Health Crisis Team completed an assessment and Brooke claimed they medically cleared her from a mental health perspective.
She said she was told her inability to sleep was caused by the high-dose treatment she had recently started.
“For the first time throughout this experience, I felt someone had listened to me and believed what I was saying,” Brooke said.
She has since managed to sleep and has been taken off the sedative medication she had been put on.
A woman who couldn’t sleep for 102 hours says doctors dismissed her physical symptoms. Photo / Dean Purcell
What can cause severe sleep problems?
Sleep psychologist and founder of The Better Sleep Clinic, Dan Ford, told the Herald there were differences in the causes and symptoms between insomnia and sleep deprivation.
“People with sleep deprivation are often sleepy, and they fall asleep quickly when given an opportunity, whereas people with insomnia are often not sleepy and have longer than typical times to fall asleep when given the opportunity,” he said.
He said with sleep disorders like insomnia, people who are lying in bed trying to sleep often experience increased anxiety and a state of hyperarousal.
“That actually kicks off a cycle of anxiety, which disrupts their sleep more,” he said.
Ford said scientifically, he could not say with certainty whether deficiencies or high-dose supplements could cause sleep issues.
“I can think of two people that I treated that actually had a condition where their body created too much iron, and that definitely got in the way of their sleep.”
He said he could not determine whether over-supplementing on iron could have the same effect.