Mother dies two weeks after crash
Jan 4 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal
TRIBUTES were paid yesterday to a well-respected prison psychologist who died in hospital two weeks after being involved in an early-morning accident on an icy road in Northumberland.
The sudden death on Boxing Day of mother-of-two Denise Hopper, 40, has devastated her family and shocked her colleagues and friends at Frankland Prison in Durham.
Denise – a divorcee who lived in Hipsburn near Alnmouth with her son James, 18, and 17-year-old daughter Kerry-Ann – worked as a forensic psychologist in the Westgate Unit, which handles some of the prison’s most dangerous and violent offenders.
She was driving to work at about 6.30am on December 11 when her car skidded off a treacherous, icy stretch of the A1 at Newton-on-the-Moor, between Alnwick and Felton, and she had to be cut free by firefighters.
She suffered three fractured vertebrae and other injuries and was taken to Wansbeck General Hospital in Ashington before being transferred to Newcastle General Hospital.
Denise spent a week in hospital before being allowed home, and her family believed she was past the worst and on the road to recovery.
But on Boxing Day she suddenly suffered breathing problems and passed out before being taken back to Wansbeck General, where she died despite attempts to save her.
A post-mortem revealed she had been killed by a deep vein thrombosis which had developed following the road accident and spread to her lungs.
Denise, a former student at Alnwick’s Duchess’s High School, qualified as a forensic psychologist after going to university and gaining a masters degree in psychology.
She was divorced from her husband two years ago and her two children are now staying with her mother, Maureen Thompson, who lives in Glasgow. Yesterday, Mrs Thompson said: “When Denise came home from hospital everyone thought she was going to be OK and it was a hell of a shock when this happened on Boxing Day.
“She had had a brilliant Christmas Day but the next day she passed out and could not get her breath. Her death was down to the road accident and it would not have happened if it had not been for the accident.
“Denise put herself through university, got her masters degree and brought the children up herself. She was highly respected, loved her job at Frankland and all her colleagues loved and respected her. It has been a terrible tragedy and she didn’t deserve this.”
Denise was part of a multi-disciplinary team working in Frankland Prison’s Westgate Unit, a joint Prison Service/NHS facility and one of only four such specialist units in the country.
Opened in 2004, the 80-bed unit looks after and rehabilitates prisoners with dangerous and severe personality disorders.
Last night, Ritchie Betts, deputy governor on the Westgate Unit, said: “This purpose-built unit for the assessment and treatment of severe personality disorders is ground-breaking and very demanding work.
“Denise played a major role in many aspects of the unit’s development, but will be most remembered for her work on developing the prisoner incentive scheme, which has been widely acknowledged as a model of best practice. She will be sadly missed by her colleagues.’’
