COMMUNICATION errors which may have resulted in an epileptic not taking the recommended amount of medication did not contribute to her death, a coroner ruled on Friday.

Brigitte Nibourette was found face down in her bed in Brookscroft Road, Walthamstow, by her estate agent on November 4, 2011, after suffering a seizure in her sleep.

A letter recommending the 33-year-old increase the dosage of anticonvulsant drug Tegretol earlier that year was sent to an address she had not lived at since 2003, meaning her GP was not instructed to prescribe Ms Nibourette the stronger treatment.

However coroner Shirley Radcliffe at Walthamstow Coroners Court concluded there was no evidence the woman would not have died had she been taking the higher dose after a toxicology report suggested she had higher levels of the drug in her blood at the time of death.

But she added: “I’m concerned that it is not entirely clear how the errors in providing routine communication in June 2011 to both the patient and the GP arose.”

Ms Nibourette, who suffered approximately three seizures a year in her sleep which left her foaming at the mouth and confused, went to University College London in June last year to be assessed by neurology registrar Dr Sophia Khan.

Dr Khan decided to increase her dosage from 400mg to 600mg per day, but the letter recommending this never arrived at the correct address - while Dr Khan told the court the incorrect address was not actually on the hospital’s database.

“I can’t explain where that information came from,” she said. “We always check information, especially that which could be mis-typed, but I wouldn’t routinely check addresses.”

Ms Nibourette’s stepfather, John Skerratt, from Stowmarket in Suffolk, was then called on the evening of November 4 by Ms Nibourette’s boss to say she had not been at work for two days.

“As soon as we got the call alarm bells started ringing,” he said.

He called estate agent Robert Stiff, whom he was employing to sell the flat, to check on his stepdaughter.

He found her dead in bed after using a key to enter the flat when no-one answered the door.

The coroner ruled Nibourette had died from natural causes after suffering an epileptic seizure.