A respected and popular Galway-born doctor died in a Manchester hospital in February after he was given the wrong drug for a chest infection, a coroner has found.
Ray McMahon (68), who moved to Britain more than 40 years ago, went into cardiac arrest after he received an overdose of the wrong drug through an intravenous drip.
The National Health Service (NHS) trust that ran Wythenshawe hospital where he died – the same trust that he worked for as a consultant histopathologist – admitted to the Manchester coroner’s court that a “cascade of errors” led to his death.
Mr McMahon’s grieving family, including his three daughters and his wife Claire McMahon, a retired GP who is also Irish, said he was “failed” by the hospital.
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“I and my family would like to express our extreme disappointment, distress and sadness at what happened, especially within the trust that he’d worked for many years,” said Ms McMahon.
“Ray devoted his whole life to the NHS, but as a patient he was failed by Wythenshawe hospital. To know that both system and individual failures caused his death is devastating.”
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, apologised and said his care had “fallen short of the high standards to which we aspire”.
Mr McMahon was brought by ambulance to the hospital, south of Manchester, with a serious chest infection in February. He was treated on a ward at first, before being moved to intensive care.
According to a report this week by Manchester coroner Zak Golombeck, a consultant recommended a specific antibiotic to treat Mr McMahon. However, he was wrongly prescribed a refrigerated version of the drug, when the one he needed was to be found on a shelf.
Due to the error, the hospital’s pharmacy looked in the wrong place, and accidentally picked up a similar-sounding but different medicine from the fridge.
The incorrect drug had a larger dose and Mr McMahon was given a “significant overdose”. He went into cardiac arrest towards the end of a one-hour infusion.
Mr McMahon worked for the trust as a consultant and was based at Manchester Royal Infirmary. He was also a respected medical educator, and was for many years a professor at the University of Manchester. He was an uncle of former Ireland rugby player Ronan O’Gara.
According to obituaries in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the website of the British division of the International Academy of Pathology (IAP), with which he was deeply involved, Mr McMahon was a popular man.
The IAP described Mr McMahon as “one of the most delightful and loveable characters in international pathology”. The BMJ said he “lived up to the stereotype of the affable Irishman: he was a friendly, relaxed man who enjoyed a party and might knock out a song at the end of a convivial evening”.
He was originally from Galway city, where he trained as a doctor after attending St Joseph’s College, better known as the Bish.
He is survived by his wife, with whom he moved to the UK in 1984, and his three daughters – Aoife, Niamh and Sorcha - and six grandchildren.
