THE family of woman who died after a suspected drug overdose at a County Limerick nursing home in 2013 have been awarded damages at Limerick Circuit Court.
Kathleen O’Doherty (63) died a number of days after she was admitted to University Hospital Limerick suffering from what was believed to be an overdose of medication at the Cahermoyle Nursing home in Ardagh.
Ms O’Doherty was found in a “groggy state” lying on the ground in an outdoor smoking area at the nursing home on January 23, 2013.
Nurse Maria McLoughlin told the inquest into Ms O’Doherty’s death that she was giving out medication to patients and that Ms O’Doherty was in the dining room area when she was given her medication.
However, Nurse McLoughlin was called away to attend another patient who was wandering on the corridor. She locked the medical cart before she left and covered the two tablet pods that she had left on top of the tray with a box of disposable gloves.
After tending to the patient, Nurse McLoughlin was told that Ms O’Doherty had fallen in the smoking area and was conscious but groggy.
ShannonDoc was called and it was then that Nurse McLoughlin learned that two medicine pods were missing from the cart.
During the early hours of January 23, 2013, Ms O’Doherty’s family was told by nursing home staff that she was being brought to hospital after a fall as a precautionary measure.
Almost an hour later, Ms O’Doherty’s family was told that she was in a critical condition and they should come to the hospital.
Ms O’Doherty died four days later.
The inquest jury recorded an open verdict after it was revealed that the empty medicine pods were never found.
Limerick Coroner, Dr Tony Casey criticised the hospital for not notifying his office about the suspicious death.
Five days after Ms O’Doherty’s funeral, he was notified by HIQA, the health information and quality authority, of her death, despite the hospital’s legal obligation to notify him of any suspicious death.
This meant that an autopsy was not carried out.
At Limerick Circuit Civil Court on Tuesday, Judge Francis Comerford was told that the nursing home had offered a damages award of €25,000 to Ms O’Doherty’s family.
Counsel for the O’Doherty family, Ciara Daly said that while the nursing home had a duty of care to Ms O’Doherty, it was accepted by the family that the empty medication pods were never found and that her admission to hospital was on “the belief” she had ingested the prescription drugs.
Legal costs and costs for the inquest were also awarded to the family and Judge Comerford ordered that €500 be paid to each of Ms O’Doherty’s grandchildren to be used for their benefit and that the balance of €21,500 be paid to her son.
