Doctor Adlington, specialising in gastroenterology, saw Peter Barlow at an outpatients' clinic at Weatherfield General for his liver condition, caused by years of drinking abuse. She told him that after a short spell in hospital a month before, and the subsequent monitoring of his blood, the tests showed no visible improvement in his liver function. They would continue to monitor him for the next few months before deciding if a transplant would be required. Peter was concerned that he would be queue-jumping over someone who was more deserving as their liver problems weren't self-inflicted as his were, but the smiling doctor assured him that they were not there to make any moral judgements but simply to make people better.
Two months later, Peter was rushed back into hospital after he collapsed, showing all the signs of drinking again. His family and friends showed various levels of despair and disgust with him, feeling that he was throwing his final opportunities away despite Peter's insistence that he was ill and had not fallen off the wagon again. The doctor conducted a series of tests and gave Peter the results: there was no alcohol in his blood, and the symptoms were caused by his previous drinking and the damage and he had done to his liver. Specifically, as the liver was unable to remove toxins from his blood, he was suffering from hepatic encephalopathy, a decline in brain function that occurs as a result of severe liver disease.
By the April, Peter's condition hadn't improved of its own volition, and he needed a transplant though he would need an assessment to decide whether or not he was well enough to receive one and, more importantly, if he would look after his new liver if the procedure was carried out. Whilst she had faith in him, there was no guarantee that the specialists in the transplant centre would agree.
A week later, Peter was back in hospital suffering from hypotension and hypoglycaemia where Doctor Adlington was able to give him the good news that he had been traced on the transplant list, awaiting a donor. He was referred to a transplant co-ordinator with the warning that the average waiting time was 145 days, though it could be sooner. In the event, Peter received his new liver in early June.
- The character was credited as "Doctor" on her first two appearances, and as "Doctor Adlington" thereafter.
List of appearances[]
2021