\n Reginald Mills, known as Reg, died at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&N) on February 20 after an infection around his left eye developed into life-threatening sepsis.\n<\/p>\n
\n His family told an inquest at Norfolk Coroner\u2019s Court they sought urgent medical attention on February 9 because his eye was so badly swollen he could barely open it.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the GP diagnosed a burst blood vessel and advised that antibiotics were unnecessary.\n<\/p>\n
\n Four days later, Mr Mills of Scole, near Diss, was rushed to hospital, where scans revealed a serious infection affecting his eye socket and surrounding tissues.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite intensive treatment, he died a week later.\n<\/p>\n
\n The family of Reg Mills raised concerns about a consultation with a locum GP days before his death (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Months before his death, the court heard, Mr Mills had been experiencing hallucinations.\n<\/p>\n
\n His family feared they were linked to an infection, but his GP had suggested dementia as a possible explanation.\n<\/p>\n
\n His wife said the family left the appointment feeling their concerns had not been addressed.\n<\/p>\n
\n By February 9, his left eye had become painful and swollen, and he could open it only around one millimetre.\n<\/p>\n
\n His daughter arranged an urgent appointment and drove her parents to the surgery.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mrs Mills said she specifically asked whether antibiotics would be appropriate but was told they were unnecessary. He was instead prescribed eye drops.\n<\/p>\n
\n Over the following days, her husband\u2019s condition deteriorated.\n<\/p>\n
\n By February 12, he was repeatedly falling asleep and the swelling around his eye had worsened considerably.\n<\/p>\n
\n His daughter photographed the eye and urged her mother to request a home visit.\n<\/p>\n
\n A paramedic practitioner attended the following morning and immediately called an ambulance.\n<\/p>\n
\n Reg Mills died at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (Image: Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Hospital investigations at the N&N revealed an abscess and cellulitis around his eye, which had led to sepsis.\n<\/p>\n
\n While there, Mr Mills suffered a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated. Although he regained consciousness, his condition continued to worsen.\n<\/p>\n
\n On February 18, doctors told his family he was in septic shock and would not recover.\n<\/p>\n
\n His wife and daughters agreed to withdraw active treatment in favour of palliative care. He died at around 2am on February 20.\n<\/p>\n
\n During the inquest, his daughter challenged locum GP Dr Salah Elbishari.\n<\/p>\n
\n She questioned whether the abscess responsible for the infection had been missed because his eye had not been properly examined.\n<\/p>\n
\n Giving evidence, Dr Elbishari said he had checked Mr Mills\u2019s vital signs, which were within normal ranges.\n<\/p>\n
\n He described the eye as very red but said he had not observed significant swelling.\n<\/p>\n
\n His assessment was that Mr Mills had a burst blood vessel, which he expected to resolve.\n<\/p>\n
\n The consultation lasted around 10 to 15 minutes.\n<\/p>\n
\n The family asked why he had not opened the eye or used additional equipment to examine it more thoroughly.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Elbishari maintained that this had not been necessary based on the symptoms he observed.\n<\/p>\n
\n He also explained that dementia had been one possible explanation he was considering for the hallucinations, rather than a confirmed diagnosis.\n<\/p>\n
\n Area coroner Johanna Thompson (Image: The Coroners’ Society)\n<\/p>\n
\n Norfolk coroner Johanna Thompson recorded a narrative conclusion, confirming that Mr Mills died from sepsis due to orbital cellulitis.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mrs Mills described how, until her husband’s sudden deterioration, he had enjoyed an independent and active life.\n<\/p>\n
\n He could wash, dress and care for himself, enjoyed playing the organ and had recently fitted a dishwasher and moved kitchen cupboards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reginald Mills, known as Reg, died at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (N&N) on February 20 after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-815169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}