My father died with no dignity, says daughter of man found dead on hospital f loor
THE heartbroken daughter of a man who died on the floor of an overcrowded emergency department at Limerick hospital has said she may never get over him dying ‘with no dignity’.
An inquest into the death of Martin Abbott, 65, heard this week he had died after falling from a trolley he had been on for three days in the emergency department of UHL in December 2019, and may have been on the ground for over an hour before he was discovered. He could not be ventilated by a doctor as rigor mortis had already
‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing’
set in when he was found.
On Wednesday, Limerick coroner John McNamara recorded a verdict of death by medical misadventure.
Yesterday, his daughter, Anne Marie Abbott, said: ‘My father wasn’t close to death. But for him to have to die with no dignity is something that I don’t know if I’ll ever get over.’
She described her father as ‘a very strong man, an absolute gentleman’ and said he and her mother were looking forward to ‘travelling the world’.
Ms Abbott said she raised concerns about his condition with UHL staff the evening he died.
‘I felt his breathing was a bit laboured and I wanted something to be done. I was met with a bit of rudeness and they told me that it was nothing to do with them, that he was under the care of the medic team... I was told that the doctor would be down within the hour,’ she told RTÉ’s Drivetime.
‘At 6am we got a phone call from my mother just stating that the guards were at the door, that UL hospital was trying to contact us,’ she said.
The family went straight to the hospital and were told in a phone call that Mr Abbott, from Shannon, Co. Clare, had ‘a turn’. Ms Abbott said: ‘The nurse in charge and the registrar on call told us he was dead, that he was found in a collapsed state by the sink and they suspected it was a heart attack. That was all the information they gave us. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.’
Ms Abbott said she would not wish what her family has gone through on anybody. She added: ‘It could all be prevented if they look and see how they’re doing things. Accidents do happen, but it’s how they manage these accidents and these tragedies and being honest and trustworthy, instead of prolonging heartache and grief for families.’
Health Minister Stephen
Donnelly yesterday said ‘nobody would stand over’ how Mr Abbott died at UHL. Mr Donnelly and the chief executive of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, are to visit the hospital next week to discuss the matter. Mr Donnelly said: ‘I think it’s very serious situation.’
It is the latest in a series of highprofile inquests relating to patients who were treated at the hospital. Retired chief justice Frank Clarke is conducting an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Aoife Johnston, 16, who spent 12 hours on a trolley at the hospital dying of sepsis.
Mr Donnelly said yesterday: ‘There have been various inquests... That doesn’t mean that there was negligence or that things went wrong, but certainly the situation there, where the patient was on the floor for an extended period of time, nobody would stand over that.’