A MAN who had inherited a debilitating condition from his mother threw himself off a motorway bridge because he felt doctors were not taking his concerns seriously enough.

Alan Murphy, 62, of Basing Close, Maidstone, died when he jumped from the bridge over the M20 at junction 7 near Boxley, Maidstone, on Sunday, November 5.

An inquest into his death heard that although he had appeared to be accepting his deteriorating health because of Huntington’s Chorea, he believed something else was wrong, such as bowel cancer or renal failure.

When doctors at Maidstone Hospital told him he did not have either, he discharged himself and, the following morning, jumped from the bridge. Although no vehicles hit him, he died from multiple injuries.

His cousin, Maggie Tisserand, said: “He was coming out with these wild suggestions because he was in pain and there was no reason. Because of his underlying depression and because of the pain, he must have just thought the worst.

“He said they [the doctors] weren’t taking him seriously. In retrospect, I said to him at the time 'Don’t be silly Alan, you don’t have these conditions. Take a pain killer and I’ll see you tomorrow’.”

Mr Murphy was diagnosed with Huntington’s Chorea, which involves jerking movements and dementia, in June last year.

He told Ms Tisserand he had not slept well in hospital, and had not been given his usual medication.

But Mr Raj Harshan, a surgical registrar at Maidstone Hospital, said many patients did not sleep well in hospital, and his GP, Dr Mennie, said it would have taken a month for the effects of his medication to wear off.

Coroner Roger Sykes, who recorded a verdict that he took his own life, said: “This came on the background of a diagnosis of Huntington’s Chorea, and, more recently, he had some abdominal pain which clearly was concerning him greatly.

“There was a history in the family of bowel cancer and it is easy to understand how it may well have been that he felt he was more seriously ill than the clinicians were telling him.”