A heartbroken mother told a coroner her autistic daughter was driven to her death over the wrong diagnosis of her condition through a mental health trust.

Accountant Zoe Zaremba died aged 25 in June 2020, her body was found in undergrowth around a mile from her home in Aiskew Bedale, after a six day search by police and emergency services.

Her mum Jean Zaremba told assistant North Yorkshire coroner John Broadbridge at the inquest in Northallerton into her death that her daughter was diagnosed with autism at 16, but under the care of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust she was later diagnosed as having a borderline personality disorder.

She said: “This ultimately drove Zoe to her death, she couldn’t live with the diagnosis, she said she couldn’t live in a world full of liars. I will never recover from losing Zoe it is a waste of a wonderful life.”

The hearing was told between 2016 and 2020 Zoe attended Accident and Emergency 37 times for self harm ,on 24 occasions it was after ingesting substances. 

Ms Zaremba said Zoe, started to struggle when she was 13, was bullied at school and was eventually diagnosed late at 16 with autism. She started to say she wanted to die initially her mother felt they were cries to help but she added: “When she didn’t receive any she lost all hope, She said she wanted to die and she didn’t feel she could get away from it. She felt she wouldn’t be able to hold down a job or live an independent life.”

Zoe started tweeting her fears and concerns in 2018. She qualified as an accountant, but struggled with with some aspects of the work and after taking the firm she was working for to an industrial tribunal she resigned.

Eventually in May 2020 the Trust said that she did not have borderline personality disorder but the diagnosis was still included in her records despite attempts to change them, and she believed it would have an effect on the rest of her life. At one stage in the weeks before her death Zoe was taken into hospital for treatment and released.

She tweeted: “I feel trapped in a living nightmare they have taken my hope and identity from me, I don’t want to be part of it, I just want to die."

Ms Zaremba said she believed Zoe was suffering from complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Dr Wolfgang Kuster, a Clinical Director for the Trust told the inquest: "The very fact of autistic behaviours can cause trauma by triggering negative responses, this trauma is often reinforced by the pateints to deal with trauma experiences. Zoe had the full ability to understand the effects of Ethanol Glycol and the high risk, she knew more about it than I did."

He agreed when asked by the coroner that people with autism could be  at high risk of suicide. He said that Zoe had delined the offer of help from the Trust's autism team and she had lot trust towards the trust, although he felt she had developed some trust with him.

Dr Kuster said he had been due to phone Zoe on June 10, but it had been a very busy time and with Covid he had not called her. 

"When I heard what happened I have been thinking a long time, I believe it was potentially a contributing factor, I certainly ask myself the question," he added.

The doctor said since Zoe's passing autism training had been delivered so staff know much more about autism. "Her story has been part of a lot of discussions about how we can improve services with regard to autism especially as we are confronted with patients staying in hospital for a long time."

The inquest is due to last four days