Mother ‘sick’ after latest UHL death
Teenager died in hospital plagued by overcrowding
THE mother of a young woman who died at University Hospital Limerick has said news of the death of another young girl there left her ‘sick to my stomach’.
Melanie Sheehan Cleary, whose daughter Eve, 21, died in UHL in 2019, has said she feels that ‘no lessons have been learned’ from her death.
University Hospital Limerick announced it would carry out another preliminary assessment into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 16-year-old girl at the hospital three weeks ago. This comes less than two years after the death of Aoife Johnston, also 16, from Shannon, Co. Clare, who spent 12 hours on a trolley as meningitis in her body developed into fatal sepsis.
The girl whose death on January 29 this year is now the subject of a review was reportedly initially admitted to a resuscitation area at the hospital but was deemed well enough to be transferred to a trolley in a corridor prior to her death.
She was then returned to the resuscitation unit in a critical condition, where she died. On the day she died, UHL was the most overcrowded hospital in the country, with 113 patients on trolleys in corridors and other areas of the emergency department and wards.
Commenting on the revelation, Ms Cleary Sheehan said: ‘It is just heartbreaking... I can’t believe it, it’s clear that we are all taking our chances now by going into UHL, the overcrowding there is beyond anything we have ever seen.’
There was a record 150 patients on trolleys at the hospital on February 7. Yesterday, 105 patients were waiting for a bed, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
UHL was also overcrowded with trolleys on the day Eve Cleary died in the early hours of July 21, 2019.
She spent 17 hours on a trolley before her death from cardiac arrest due to her developing blood clots.
Last month Eve’s family and the HSE reached a High Court settlement without any admission of liability. Following the settlement UHL offered its ‘sincere condolences and deep regret’ over Eve’s death.
Ms Sheehan Cleary called on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to do more to address chronic overcrowding at the hospital.
She also called on UHL management to consider their positions in the wake of the death of another teenager in the midst of chaotic overcrowding at the hospital: ‘I feel as if the whole management team should step down.’
Minister Donnelly has said he has allocated millions of euro to try to alleviate overcrowding and recruit staff at UHL. But Ms Sheehan Cleary asked: ‘Where is the money going? Is it being used to pay out to families of patients who have died? Where is it going, that’s what I would like to know.
‘From what I have seen so far he is a very fair person but Stephen Donnelly, in my opinion, is not in touch with the situation at UHL at all, he announces when he is visiting the hospital. Why isn’t he coming down on spec looking at the situation?
‘These girls are victims of UHL,’ she said. ‘We are gutted at this latest case review because we feel as if no lessons have been learned after Eve’s death. We didn’t even get an apology.
‘Eve’s death was four and half years ago now and we are looking at these shocking deaths, we are horrified. There are young scared women dying there, it is just horrendous. There are no words any more for what is being allowed to happen in UHL.’
Ms Sheehan Cleary said Minister Donnelly has not responded to her requests to meet him. She said of the current situation in the hospital: ‘We are taking our chances out in UHL now, because you will either be left on a trolley so long, or, in Eve’s case she was sent home before she died, and this girl was moved from resus and out onto a trolley and her mother pleading for help, from what I have read. What the hell is gong on out there? I am going to send more emails to the minister highlighting the situation there.’
Minister Donnelly said he is aware of the latest investigation at UHL and offered his condolences to the girl’s family.
Ms Sheehan Cleary said she is waiting to meet with HSE boss Bernard Gloster to hear the conclusion of a HSE review of Eve’s case.
113 patients on trolleys at UHL on the day the teen died