Dad died of heart attack hours after having stent fitted
Inquest told family cannot accept death ‘unavoidable’
THE family of a man who died of a heart attack hours after a routine procedure in hospital told an inquest they will never accept his death was unavoidable.
Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard Peter Dunne, 74, became unwell just over 30 minutes after being discharged from Beaumont Hospital following an operation to fit a stent on July 8, 2019.
However, his relatives claimed he should not have been discharged as he was not feeling well at the time.
He was pronounced dead over five hours later shortly after 11pm after being rushed by ambulance to the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in the city.
Consultant cardiologist Mark Kennedy, who performed the procedure, said he had suffered a rare but life-threatening complication called acute stent thrombosis which only affected about 3 in 1,000 patients.
Asked by coroner Aisling Gannon if the condition was unexpected, Dr Kennedy replied: “Entirely unpredictable.”
The inquest heard there was no evidence there was anything done wrong during the procedure that contributed to his death.
However, Dr Kennedy, who rushed to the Mater to assist with the treatment of Mr Dunne on hearing of his emergency, accepted he had created uncertainty for the deceased’s family by telling them he had “pinched” one of the patient’s blood vessels.
He said: “It is not uncommon but not a big issue. It is only significant if it was not fixed.”
Dr Kennedy added a review of the case by both doctors at Beaumont and an independent expert had concluded nothing had happened during the procedure to fit the stent to have caused his death.
The witness said he was shocked at how most of the blood flow to the patient’s heart had become blocked.
BLOCKAGE
He added he still did not have a clear answer as to what happened to Mr Dunne.
Pathologist Laura Mckenna said the postmortem showed the deceased had suffered a sudden, acute blockage in his artery about four to six hours before his death.
She added she found no evidence the procedure to fit a stent earlier that day had contributed to Mr Dunne’s death.
Mr Dunne’s daughter Andrea Jones said her father was in great form before going into Beaumont Hospital and regarded everything as routine as he also had stents fitted in 2015.
However, the deceased’s wife Alice Dunne said her husband was off-colour after he returned to a recovery ward at around 12.50pm, while he also complained of chest pains.
She recalled another daughter, Catherine, had to get blankets for him as he was cold.
Fighting back tears, Mrs Dunne, said what upset her most was nurses were unaware of what happened during the procedure while she was “told nothing”.
She sobbed: “I don’t think Peter was given a chance. I left that hospital but my gut feeling was that we should have stayed... if he had just been kept in for 24 hours.”
Mr Dunne’s son-in-law Stephen Jones said: “Whilst the family have always accepted complications can occur, the lack of appropriate aftercare is difficult for us to accept.” The coroner said there was no clear explanation for the proximity between the procedure and Mr Dunne’s death which had caused “deep upset”.
Ms Gannon said she would convey the family’s concerns to Beaumont over its discharge policy for patients with complex health issues.
If he had just been kept in for 24 hours. We should have stayed ALICE DUNNE WIDOW OF PETER DUNNE YESTERDAY