Tag Archives: Inquest

The parents of Aoife Johnston, who died in a “death trap” emergency department at University Hospital Limerick, following “systemic failures” in her care, said today their daughter died a “horrible death”, writes David Raleigh. Carol and James Johnston said they wanted their daughter not to be remembered “as the girl who died on a hospital trolley”, but as “a happy, easy-going, happy-go-lucky girl, who went to school and did summer jobs”. “Our lovely 16-year-old girl and our baby was loved very, very much by us and her sisters,” they said. Following four days of harrowing evidence at Aoife’s inquest, the Limerick Coroner, John McNamara returned a verdict of medical misadventure in her death from meningitis after she contracted sepsis. It was, Mr McNamara agreed, “the only verdict” open to him after it had been proposed by Damien Tansey, senior counsel and solicitor for the Johnston family, and not opposed by barristers representing the HSE/ULHospitals Group and management at the hospital. …

An Assistant Director of Nursing at University Hospital Limerick, giving evidence on Tuesday at the inquest into Aoife Johnston’s death, agreed that the environment inside UHL’s overcrowded emergency department was “dangerous” for patients as Ms Johnston waited more than 12 hours for life-saving antibiotics, which it was heard were not administered in time. Aoife, 16, from Shannon, died at UHL on December 19 2022, following a series of delays in her treatment, the inquest which is being held at Limerick Coroners Court, Kilmallock, heard. Aoife presented at UHL on December 17, along with with a GP referral letter that queried “sepsis”, a life-threatening blood infection, which required “urgent” attention. UHL’s sepsis protocols, requiring patients to be seen by a doctor within 15 minutes, were not followed. Aoife was not triaged until 1 hour 15 minutes after first presenting. When she eventually made it to the emergency department she had to wait more than 12 hours to be examined by a …

A doctor who treated 16-year-old Aoife Johnston prior to her death at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) wept in the witness box at the teenager’s inquest and told Limerick Coroner, John McNamara, that the emergency department at UHL was “not a safe environment” for patients, writes David Raleigh. Dr Leandri Card told how she was trying to manage 191 ED patients on her own, and that she and ED nurses were “overwhelmed” on the night Aoife presented at the hospital. The South African native, who was working as a Senior House Officer (SHO) in UHL’s Emergency Department, said “every inch of the floor space” was taken up by patients on trolleys when Aoife presented on December 17, 2022. “It was like a war-zone. It was an impossible situation,” she said. Dr Card told the inquest, which is being held at Limerick Coroner’s Court in Kilmallock, that due to over-crowding and pressure on staff she and other doctors routinely prescribed medication for …

THE parents of Aoife Johnston who died at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), after waiting 12 hours on a chair while dying of sepsis, told her inquest today they watched her die despite “begging” staff to help, reports David Raleigh. James and Carol Johnston gave emotional and harrowing evidence at Limerick Coroner’s Court of the final moments of their 16-year-old daughter’s death, on December 19, 2022. James Johnston wept and held his face in his hands as he told the inquest that, despite his pleadings for assistance for his daughter, UHL staff “kept given Aoife paracetamol, and putting ice packs on her legs” but that “they just weren’t really helping, there was no help”. Mr Johnston said Aoife had awoken at their home on Saturday, December 17, in “great form” but she became “unwell” around midday, and “took some paracetamol and returned to bed”. Around 3.30pm Aoife vomited and Mr Johnston made an appointment at locum GP service Shannodoc for 4.50pm …

A verdict of misadventure at the end of an inquest into the death of a North Clare Coast Guard volunteer has left her widower dissatisfied. A jury of four men and three women also issued seven recommendations concerning safety management, training and equipment used by the Irish Coast Guard before Limerick coroner John McNamara at Kilmallock Court recently. Experienced Doolin Coast Guard member, Caitríona Lucas was the first Coast Guard volunteer to lose her life following a search and rescue operation off Kilkee Bay on September 12, 2016. Her husband, Bernard Lucas confirmed he is not happy with the official inquest verdict. In his summing up for the jury, the coroner said unfortunately, I can’t give you the option of “unlawful killing”. Mr Lucas believes the final verdict should have been “unlawful killing” and felt this option should have been available for the jury as submitted by his representative Mr Kingston. Marine expert Michael Kingston, representing the Lucas family, had …

The family of the late Caitriona Lucas say that “critical lessons” must be learned from the North Clare woman’s death while on duty with the coastguard in 2016. A jury of four men and three women returned a verdict of death by misadventure yesterday evening, Thursday, following a four day sitting of the coroners court in Limerick. In a statement read after the verdict, the Lucas family was critical of the Irish Coastguard, saying that its failures to have proper safety systems in place caused the death of Caitriona Lucas. The family also highlighted the failure of the authorities to act on a 2012 report, which called for a senior safety systems manager to be installed in the Irish Coast Guard. In their statement they also said that the minister in charge of the Department of Transport in 2012 “should be held to account”. When delivering their verdict, the jurors said that a number of recommendations to enhance safety should …

CORK’S Coroner’s Court has returned an open verdict into the death of West Clare man Gerard Martin Tubridy, who died following a head injury sustained on March 18, 2017 at Clohanmore, Cree, County Clare. At the inquest into his death assistant state pathologist Margaret Bolster told Thursday’s sitting of Cork Coroner’s Court that 59 year old Gerard Tubridy suffered a large linear fracture to the skull consistent with blunt force trauma on March 18, 2017 at Clohanmore in Cree. She detailed to the court that the injury which was sustained by Mr Tubridy was not consistent with a simple fall from an upright position as was the account presented to her, and was more likely associated with an accelerated fall. As to what caused the acceleration she said she could not definitively say. Having heard evidence from five individuals who travelled with Mr Tubridy on a short journey from Walsh’s in Cree to Mr Tubridy’s homeplace at Clohanmore, and also …

AN inquest has returned a verdict of manslaughter in accordance with the findings of the Central Criminal Court into the death of 43-year-old Ballyvaughan woman Deirdre McCarthy. Just days before the sixth anniversary of Ms McCarthy’s death, Colm Deely of School Road, Ballyvaughan was sentenced to eight years in prison for her manslaughter. He had denied murdering Ms McCarthy but in early March 2017 he pleaded guilty to her manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court. At a sitting of the County Coroner’s Court in Ennis on Thursday, an inquest found that Ms McCarthy’s death was due to asphyxia, with blunt force trauma as a contributory factor. County Coroner Isobel O’Dea said, in holding this inquest, she hoped it “helps to bring some closure to what was a tortured and arduous journey” for Ms Carthy’s family. Superintendent John Galvin, acting as coroner’s officer, offered his sympathies and those of An Garda Síochána, describing this case as something that has “been going …