A 59-year-old woman from Barnsley died from rabies after being scratched by a puppy in Morocco, an inquest has heard. Yvonne Ford was diagnosed with the disease only after a psychiatrist was called to assess her symptoms, which were initially thought to be anxiety-related.
Ford was scratched on a beach in Morocco in February and did not seek medical treatment, cleaning the wound with a wet wipe instead. After returning to England, she developed symptoms including extreme anxiety, hallucinations, and dizziness, leading to her referral to a mental health facility at Barnsley Hospital.
Psychiatrist Alexander Burns told Sheffield Coroner's Court that he was asked to see Ford because colleagues had difficulty diagnosing her. He initially suspected Lyme disease before learning of the dog scratch from her husband. Burns then researched rabies and concluded that all of Ford's symptoms could be explained by the disease.
Ford was transferred to Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, where she died on 11 June. Infectious diseases expert Katharine Cartwright noted that there have been only 26 confirmed rabies cases in the UK since 1946, with a 100% fatality rate once symptoms appear.
Since her death, Ford's family has worked to raise awareness of rabies. Her daughter, Robyn Thomson, joined the charity Mission Rabies to help immunise dogs in countries like Cambodia and Malawi, saying she wanted to turn the tragedy into a positive.
