Woman, 28, who was ‘life and soul of party’ found dead beside pet dogs after failing to treat her diabetes

A YOUNG woman described as the ''life and soul of every party'' died after she failed to manage her diabetes.

Care assistant Shayni Kirk, 28, had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was just 19 but she neglected her insulin treatment and frequently failed to attend doctors appointments.

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Last January Shayni, from Macclesfield, Cheshire began complaining of severe chest pains and said her heart had been beating faster than usual.

She was found dead by her mum two days later beside her pet dogs, Misty and Boyo.

Tests showed Shayni died from Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), a complication of diabetes which affects just four per cent of people with type 1 diabetes each year.

The hearing in Macclesfield was told how Shayni had been diagnosed with diabetes in 2008 and had been offered help from a number of different medical health services.

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But her GP Dr Elizabeth Eales told the court that Shayni would frequently not take insulin and miss appointments for her diabetes.

Shayni's mum, Rosemary Slade, said she repeatedly tried to contact Shayni on Saturday January 27 but got no reply.

The worried mum went round to her daughter's flat to check on her the following day.

She told the court: "When I let myself into the flat with my key on the Sunday, everything seemed fine. There was no sign of her so I went into to the bedroom and that's where I found her.

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"The dogs were next to Shayni, I could not get them to leave her.

"I believe the GPs and hospital could have done more for Shayni. They just used to use the diabetes to shun her heart problems.

"They could have done more tests and done things differently but we will never now know."

The East Cheshire NHS Trust concluded that appropriate care was provided to Shayni.

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The post-mortem examination found therapeutic levels of methadone in her blood, but she had not taken an illicit substance for 18 months.

Coroner Heath Westerman said: "Her heart in the end was badly damaged. I can tell that she meant a great deal to many people and she was a bright girl who suffered from many different things over the years."

In a statement after the hearing Shayni's family said: "We had been worried about this type of thing happening in the past but unfortunately she kept getting dragged down by illnesses and depression.

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"She was generous and kind, a lot of people came to her for advice despite her having her own problems. She was loved by so many people and this was shown by the amount of people who came to her funeral."

Around 400,000 people in the UK have type 1 diabetes, with more than 29,000 of them being children.

DKA was an almost universally fatal complication of the condition until insulin therapy was introduced in the 1920s, with the risk of death now standing at only one to four per cent with timely treatment.