Medics mistook brain bleed for drunkenness, pair say

Alex Cottier.

Alex Cottier (21), of Arrowtown, was at the national rugby sevens tournament in Queenstown in January with his mates when he vomited and collapsed. He and his mother, Vanessa, want to know why the hospital "got it wrong", want a review of the hospital process and an assurance changes will be made.

"I want them to acknowledge they stuffed up. I want them to learn from their mistakes," Mrs Cottier said yesterday.

Mr Cottier's illness was caused not by the four standard beers he had drunk that afternoon but by a rare and potentially fatal brain bleed - an arteriovenous malformation.

It took more than 40 minutes to get him to hospital in Frankton after medical staff at the tournament allegedly assumed he was very drunk.

The mother and son say the medical process had been drawn out further by four hospital staff who also assumed his state was alcohol-related.

"I lay in Queenstown Hospital with all of them thinking I was drunk, until about 3pm the next day."

Only when hospital staff were approached by a nurse who had seen the incident the day before did they concede it was more than just a hangover, and he was sent to Invercargill hospital for a CT scan of his head.

Vanessa Cottier.

Mr Cottier remained in a high dependency unit for a further two weeks after the operation and is now awaiting radiation therapy.

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Medics mistook brain bleed for drunkenness, pair say