Teen ‘took own life’ on day he was due to see counsellor

A TEENAGER took his own life shortly after he had a breakfast-time row with his mother about going to school, an inquest has been told.

Coroner Isobel O’Dea heard yesterday that the 16-yearold took his life just hours before a scheduled first appointment with the HSE’s Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

In her deposition at the inquest in Ennis, Co. Clare, the boy’s mother said that after her son came downstairs on October 12 last year at around 8.15am, they ‘had a small argument about him going to school and we agreed he would go in at 11am’.

In her deposition, she said: ‘I had been having difficulty getting him to go to school.

‘I then left the house at around 9am and brought my other son to school.’ The mother said that on her return, she ‘went into the kitchen and I heard a bang upstairs’. She added: ‘I didn’t take much notice of the noise. I remember grabbing a towel and going upstairs.’

The mother then found her son unconscious in his bedroom.

She said: ‘I ran downstairs and opened the door and started screaming for help.’ The woman phoned the emergency services and gardaí. Paramedics soon arrived and brought the teen to University Hospital Limerick.

The boy was on life support before he was transferred to Ennis General Hospital where he died on November 18.

Consultant pathologist Dr Terézia Laszlo told the inquest that the boy had died from bronchial pneumonia arising out of a brain injury. The boy’s mother left the inquest temporarily while the medical evidence was given in the case.

Giving an open verdict, Ms O’Dea said that in cases where someone dies by their own hand, ‘in order to give a suicide verdict, I have to be satisfied that the intention was to take their own life beyond a reasonable doubt, and for me to be satisfied that they knew exactly what they were doing’.

She added: ‘He was a 16-yearold and I am not satisfied in this case that he had a knowledge or the understanding of what he was doing and I am going to leave it as an open verdict.’

The boy’s mother said she brought her son to a doctor three days prior to his death and that he was referred to CAMHS. The appointment was set for 4pm on the day of the incident

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article, help is available from the Samaritans on freephone 116123, by email at jo@samaritans.org, or via Freecall Pieta House on 1800 247 247.

‘Row about going to school’