OAP's 117 casualty trips

5:12pm Thursday 4th October 2007

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An 85-year-old woman from Watford made 117 A&E visits in more than a decade, when doctors failed to treat the cause of persistent, paralysing pains in her rib cage.

Philippa Rees was told the pain, which began in 1994, stemmed from chronic heart problems.

But it wasn't until May this year she discovered she suffered from costochondritis (or Tietze's Syndrome).

Now Mrs Rees, of Essex Road, is demanding more people are made aware of her condition, which causes swelling of the cartilage between the ribs that mimics cardiac pain.

She said: "I do wonder how many people besides me are affected. I cannot be the only one."

Mrs Rees has five oxygen cylinders in the corner of her flat, and boxes filled with unneeded pills are stacked on top of each other.

She said: "I've always been treated for heart problems. The condition caused severe rib and chest pain which displays similar symptoms to a heart attack."

The risk of costochondritis increases with physical activity that causes a strain to the ribcage, but can affect any age group.

Symptoms include sharp pains in the affected area, which is usually related to movement.

Pain can also spread into the arm and can occur alongside the feeling of tightness in the chest, which are symptoms of a heart attack.

She said: "To think I have been allowed to suffer unnecessarily for so many years.

"When I'm in pain I'm demented. It has taken over my life."

To keep her pain to a minimum, Mrs Rees now receives cortisone injections into the left side of her sternum every three months.

She also wears a Tens (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulator) machine around her waist, which delivers small electrical pulses to her body via electrode pads placed on the skin.

John Meyrick-Thomas, a consultant surgeon who treated Mrs Rees at Watford General Hospital, has joined his patient to highlight her condition, which he said is difficult to diagnose because the pain usually presents itself away from the problem area.

He said: "Pain is felt not where the cartilage is inflamed but in the vague vicinity. Patients are sent to the specialist for what seems to be the right bit but they end up in the wrong place.

"It's been talked about in medical journals but doesn't get noticed. It's nothing new. It's well known but not well recognised.

"If you have this pain and go to see a doctor, ask them, could it be my ribs? "