‘Our Robbie was abandoned on a hospital trolley in Portugal and then he died on the plane home’
Dubliner’s family sue hospital for €500k over ‘preventable’ death
THE family of a man who died from untreated peritonitis in a Portuguese hospital after ‘hours of abandonment on a trolley’, are suing the medical facility for €500,000.
Robbie Byrne was pronounced dead when his plane landed at Dublin Airport less than 48 hours after he sought urgent medical attention and was rushed to Faro’s main public hospital in the Algarve.
The 27-year-old window fitter’s friends called for an ambulance when he woke up with crippling stomach pains just over halfway through their week-long Portuguese holiday.
His mother, Sonya, fought back tears yesterday as she claimed his treatment amounted to little more than ‘hours of abandonment on a trolley’ and insisted her ‘angel’s’ death could have been avoided with better medical care.
Mr Byrne, from Sallynoggin, died as the Aer Lingus flight home he was on with his four friends began its descent on June 18, 2022.
His mother said: ‘I’ve worked tirelessly to try to get answers since my son died but I’ve never spoken publicly until now. Robbie had a burst appendix and the poison burnt his oesophagus and burnt a hole through his bowel.
He was a slight asthmatic but otherwise a healthy young lad. All of this came on very suddenly. ‘He’d gone out with his friends the Wednesday night and they called for an ambulance after waking up early and hearing him wailing with pain. They were instructed not to follow him to hospital because of Covid. ‘After he returned home he told them he had been left alone in a corner on a trolley, without the glasses he normally wore and unable to make himself understood properly because he didn’t speak Portuguese. Robbie couldn’t talk to me directly by then because he had no energy. I initially put it all down to dehydration because of the heat and I was in a bit of a panic and with his friends telling me they’d done nothing for him at the hospital my focus at that point was just on getting Robbie home.
‘None of us knew how sick my son was because he hadn’t got the information that could and should have saved his life, in my opinion.
‘I’m so angry now I have the fuller picture.’
Robbie boarded his plane in agony after checking himself out of the Algarve University Hospital Centre in what his mother has described as an act of desperation at the appalling treatment she said her ‘terrified’ son had received.
Lawyer Alexandre Martins said yesterday that on Januray 22 he lodged a lawsuit on behalf of Sonya, 56, and her husband Nicky at a civil court in Lisbon.
He said: ‘From being treated at the hospital until his death, Robert experienced nearly 48 hours of suffering, without even being prescribed medication to alleviate it.
‘This prolonged pain and the pain his parents suffered knowing the circumstances in which their son died must be compensated.
‘We would understand it if Robert had been in the middle of a desert, but there’s no way to explain how anyone can be abandoned inside a hospital in a civilised country.’
Insisting clinical protocol in Portugal meant he should have undergone a more in-depth additional examination like an MRI scan or even surgery after being referred to hospital, he added: ‘What Faro did was to give Robert a green, non-urgent bracelet, and leave their patient without care or information. Information is essential in a case like this. He was unaware that his life was at risk and, feeling abandoned, ended up turning his back on the hospital without knowing the risk he was running.’
The lawsuit has been filed against the local health authority that administers the hospital Mr Byrne was taken to and the doctor who saw him in A&E.
Mr Martins claims in legal papers the medic examined him after midday on June 16, 2022 and noted in his clinical observations that Mr Byrne had a hard abdomen that could be an acute abdomen, but did not inform him of the severity of his condition, carry out any more tests or give him pain relief medicine.
Sonya Byrne said: ‘My son should never have been allowed on that plane. He fainted at the airport in the boarding area and they asked for an ambulance and got the Red Cross. His friends who were with him at the time saw things I don’t want to know about and have still left them traumatised today.
‘Our compensation demand stands at €500,000 because I wanted to go to the highest level.
‘This is not about money but about hitting a big corporation where it hurts most which is in their pockets. They’ll never ever feel the pain we do which is never going to go away.
‘Robbie was an angel, our baby, an amazing kid and such a genuine and lovely person. We want and need justice to make sure we get change. People go away on holiday to Portugal and I’m concerned they’re not being looked after properly.
‘My opinion is my son’s death was preventable and he should have had surgery straight away after he got to hospital.
‘I want to fix the wrongs so other people don’t end up like my boy and that’s why we’ve launched this legal action.’
The local health authority said in a statement it ‘naturally regretted’ this ‘personal tragedy’ but the fact the lawsuit has been lodged meant it couldn’t comment fully.
It added: ‘From the preliminary assessment carried out internally, there is no indication or suspicion that calls into question the quality of the services provided. The user abandoned the service, which is why we stand ready, with serenity and complete availability, to clarify this situation in the appropriate instances when required.’
Medic did not give him pain relief