Mum of woman who refused chemo accuses paramedics of killing her

A high-profile conspiracy theorist has told an inquest she believes paramedics killed her daughter and doctors used experimental drugs on her without consent.

Paloma Shemirani, 23, died in July last year seven months after receiving a cancer diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She had refused chemotherapy treatment.

Her mother Kate, a former nurse who rose to prominence on social media sharing Covid conspiracy theories, accused the emergency team who treated Paloma when she collapsed at home of gross negligence manslaughter.

She also denied influencing Paloma’s refusal of conventional treatment, saying: “I cared for her like any loving mother would, but I did not make her decisions.”

Ms Shemirani was struck off as a nurse in 2021, having qualified in the 1980s and a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) committee found she had spread Covid-19 misinformation that “put the public at a significant risk of harm”.

Giving a statement via video link to Thursday’s hearing in Maidstone, Mrs Shemirani said that when her daughter was first diagnosed in December 2023 she was given “experimental” medication without her agreement.

She added: “I was gravely concerned my daughter may have been enrolled in a drug trial without her knowledge.”

She said Paloma, a Cambridge graduate from Uckfield in East Sussex, had felt bullied and pressured by doctors while considering chemotherapy, adding: “I told her not to sign the consent form.

“I was concerned she was being deceived and they’d already started her treatment without her authorisation.”

Mrs Shemirani described suggestions she had coerced Paloma into refusing chemotherapy as “false and deeply offensive” and said her daughter was “fully competent” to make up her own mind.

The inquest was also played the 999 call made by Mrs Shemirani on the night Paloma collapsed, during which she can be overheard shouting that her daughter is dying.

But now she states that it was only when paramedics arrived that “everything went horribly wrong”, blaming them for administering “a massive overdose of drugs too quickly to a petite woman”.

Describing the months leading up to her daughter’s death Mrs Shemirani said Paloma had chosen treatment which included nutrition, juices and spiritual support, claiming that many of her symptoms had disappeared.

Coroner Catherine Wood also heard from intensive care consultant Dr Peter Anderson who saw Paloma at the Royal Sussex County Hospital when paramedics brought her in.

He said a scan showed a large mass in her chest and neck which was compressing her airways and affecting major blood vessels.

Either could have caused the cardiac arrest she suffered, he added.

The inquest continues.