The death of my father has been painful, but you keep on fighting to get the truth
Family tell of ordeal a year on from relative’s fatal Covid infection in home now being sued for ‘failings’
ON April 12 last, Dealgan House nursing home in Co. Louth was engulfed in a major crisis.
Six patients had died from Covid-19, at least 15 others were infected and the virus was spreading rapidly from one room to another.
To compound the disarray, more than 30 staff were in self-isolation and the remaining employees were overwhelmed.
Some nights, Dealgan House only had one nurse to care for 80 residents, some of whom were very sick and dying with the virus.
The first Irish Covid case had been detected just over a month earlier, and so the Department of Health, the HSE, Hiqa and every nursing home in Ireland were reeling from the effects of the disease.
Dealgan House was turning into the worst nursing home outbreak in the country and, out of desperation, its owner, Fintan Farrelly, emailed the then health minister Simon Harris at 8.47pm that night, copying in Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan.
‘We have had six deaths to date and we have at least 15 residents with symptoms of the virus. In other words, we have a major outbreak. Our staff have been decimated. Out of our complement of 20 nurses, six are available to work,’ Mr Farrelly told the minister in an email that has been released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Out of 105 staff, 36 were selfisolating or had the virus and the
‘This is not the assistance we need’
number of staff available was rapidly decreasing.
Mr Farrelly’s son, Eoin, the nursing home’s managing director, had tested positive, as had the director of nursing.
None of the 34 other staff off work had received a test result and it was ‘possible that some of them do not have the virus and are unnecessarily absent from work, thus exacerbating a desperate staff shortage,’ Mr Farrelly told the minister.
Dealgan House was desperate to get the staff test results, but at that point, nursing home staff were not prioritised.
‘It appears that prioritisation only applies to the HSE,’ Mr Farrelly said in his exasperated plea for help to Mr Harris.
‘We are desperately short of nurses and, on occasions, have had one nurse on night duty, dealing with 80 residents, some of whom are very gravely ill.’
The deputy director of nursing was struggling to find new staff while trying to look after the residents and filling in on medical rounds herself.
By that point, Minister Harris had promised that nursing homes would get HSE staff to assist them, but Dealgan House said it only received one nurse and two healthcare workers.
When she arrived, the HSE nurse said she could only work 9am to 5pm and couldn’t work weekends.
‘This is not the assistance we need,’ Mr Farrelly wrote in bold print to the minister.
At 9.03am the next day, he emailed Ann Coyle, a HSE official, explaining that the number of suspected cases had gone up from 15 to 16 overnight, as the nursing home’s human resource manager had come down with symptoms.
This was putting the home under even greater strain as the HR manager was instrumental in getting additional staff and volunteers, including sorting out time-consuming Garda background checks for new staff.
Mr Farrelly’s email detailed what he urgently needed, including an additional four to five HSE nurses who were willing to work 12-hour shifts, day or night, along with a doctor, palliative care for the dying, cleaners and more healthcare staff. He also sought a large amount of medical equipment, including drips and stands, PPE, oxygen and body temperature scanners.
At 11.19am, the Health Information and Quality Authority got involved, when Hiqa chief inspection officer for social services, Susan Cliffe, wrote to a HSE official in the Louth area’s HSE Community Healthcare Organisation urging the supply of medical equipment to Dealgan House as the situation worsened.
For the loved ones of residents, the spiralling crisis was a huge concern. Dominic McNally, who had worked at the Harp Brewery in Dundalk for many years, was weakening.
On April 16, his family visited him, unaware that he had Covid. ‘I was the real daddy’s girl, I couldn’t wait to see him because I hadn’t seen him in weeks,’ said his daughter, Vivienne.
Mr McNally was sleeping when they saw him. ‘I suppose we were lucky in one respect because we did get to visit him but we didn’t know what was happening.’
The next day, they discovered that their father had died – a devastating blow for the family.
‘Eleven months later, it is still raw,’ said Vivienne, who fought to obtain answers from many Government agencies under the Freedom of Information Act.
She said there was a lack of preparedness in Dealgan House and a lack of information for relatives, a claim the home strongly denies.
A lawsuit is now being taken by Vivienne and other relatives against Dealgan House.
‘A letdown is an understatement,’ she said of her family’s ordeal.
Within hours of Mr McNally’s death on April 17, there was a significant development in the home.
The owners changed the management of the nursing home to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) hospital group after a crisis meeting with the Department of Health. The transfer was agreed to ensure safe staffing levels and to bring stability.
In all, 22 residents died in the six weeks from April 1 to mid-May. It was the first such transfer of
‘Couldn’t even have a church service’
management since the pandemic began. All of this has led to a major lawsuit, taken by a Dublin law firm on behalf of the McNallys and other families.
Vivienne said about 14 families have now joined the case. ‘It has been so painful but you go on fighting because you want the truth,’ she said. ‘It feels like yesterday that my father died because I’m still talking about it.
‘We couldn’t even have a church service, the priest had to come to the graveyard, so nobody could even see the service online. We wanted to say a proper goodbye to our father, but all of that has been taken away from us.’
In a statement, Dealgan House offered its sincere sympathies to ‘the families and friends of those who tragically died during our Covid-19 outbreak in April’.
‘They were people whom we got to know and love while caring for them, some over many years. All of us remain heartbroken at their death and their family’s loss,’ it said in its statement.
‘We continue to liaise with a number of families and have done everything possible to help them with any questions they may have. Medical records, where requested, have always been released in a timely fashion in line with data protection processes.’
In a statement, the HSE in Midlands-Louth-Meath Community Health Organisation area 8 said it ‘provided ongoing advice and supports in relation to Covid-19 to private nursing homes in the area’.
‘Supports offered include oxygen support therapy, PPE, staff accommodation and staffing within the resources available,’ it added. ‘The Department of Public Health Medicine maintained regular contact with private nursing homes in relation to Covid-19 outbreak management including infection prevention and control.’
It said it also provided ‘162 shifts totalling 1,801 hours comprising of nursing and healthcare assistant staff were provided by the CHO to support Dealgan House nursing home from April 7, 2020.
‘PPE deliveries to Dealgan House commenced in early April 2020.’
It added that infection prevention control material and training was provided.