I’d no idea Nicola was sick or that there was any risk to her life or our son’s life
Husband urges health officials to share any mental illness concerns
A MAN whose wife and baby died in tragic circumstances hopes major lessons can be learned from their deaths about the treatment of people with mental illness.
Darren Coleman welcomed the verdicts delivered by a jury at Dublin District Coroner’s Court this week into how his wife Nicola Keane and their seven-month-old son Henry died.
Mr Coleman also pleaded with the health authorities to keep family members informed about concerns that doctors might have about patients with a mental illness.
“I had no idea how sick Nicola was, or that there was any risk to her life or our son’s life,” said Mr Coleman, from Ballina in Co Mayo.
He claimed Nicola and their son would still be alive if medical staff had shared their concerns about his wife.
He added: “If I was told how sick she was, I would have ensured she received the care she needed to protect both her and baby Henry.”
A two-day inquest heard how Ms Keane 34, jumped to her death off a bridge near Lucan, Co Dublin in the early hours of October 22, 2020. Mr
Coleman found their son in an unresponsive state in a spare bedroom at their home in Lucan a short time later when he was woken by gardai, who had called to the house to inform him of his wife’s death.
The inquest heard him describe how he would have taken leave from his job as a teacher at a primary school if he had known the severity of his wife’s mental illness.
He outlined how no concern had been raised with him after he told staff he was due to return to teaching in August 2020 following a lengthy break due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
“I can only hope that lessons have been learned following their deaths,” said Mr Coleman.
The inquest heard how Ms Keane had suffered post-natal depression following Henry’s birth and feared she had damaged her son.
She felt she had “botched” her son and had what her family’s counsel, Sara Antoniotti SC, described as “fixed false delusions” about her son’s wellbeing.
The jury returned a verdict of medical misadventure in the case of Ms Keane with the cause of death attributed to multiple traumatic injuries consistent with a fall from a height.
They also returned a unanimous narrative verdict into the death of baby
Henry, noting that he had died from ingesting drugs which he had not been prescribed. A postmortem found “a lethal level” of an anti-psychotic drug, olanzapine, which had been prescribed for Ms Keane, in the infant’s body, together with a strong sedative.
The inquest heard how Ms Keane had denied any intention of harming herself or her son, though she did express fear that she “might do something.”
A text message sent to her husband shortly before she died, as she was driving in her car along the M50, alluded to her concerns about the challenge of giving their son a life,
Ms Keane wrote: “He deserves better but it’s not too late. It’s not fair to keep him like this. There is no future for him. There is none for me. I can’t see him suffer anymore.”
A forensic examination of her mobile phone by gardai established that the bulk of the content of the message had been composed by Ms Keane on her phone over a month earlier.
If you are affected by any issue in this article, contact Pieta House on 1800247247 or the Samaritans on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.ie.
I can only hope that lessons have been learned DARREN COLEMAN NICOLA’S HUSBAND