A coroner is to write to Dublin Bus in relation to emergency medical protocols after a man choked on a bus while the driver waited in his cab for assistance.
Seamus Farrell (56) of North Circular Road, Dublin 7, was pronounced dead at the Mater Hospital on May 7th, 2015.
The man’s daughter, Joanne Farrell, said she last saw her father that morning when he called to her house. “He walked my daughter to school every morning,” she said.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Farrell got the 46A bus at O’Connell Street and arrived at Infirmary Road at 5pm. He had a shopping bag with food on the bus that contained a ham hock and chicken nuggets, Dublin Coroner’s Court heard.
Bus driver Abandkata Camara said when the bus reached the last stop, all of the passengers exited except one. “I saw that one person remained in his seat so I called out ‘last stop,’” the driver said.
“He stood up with his shopping bag and then fell back into his seat and slumped forward,” Mr Camara said.
The driver called Dublin Bus control office and requested an ambulance, the court heard.
Coroner Dr Crona Gallagher asked if the driver had any medical or first aid instruction as part of his driver training and he replied no.
He said he followed company protocol by calling the control office and waiting in his cab for assistance. Emergency services arrived around 25 minutes later.
“In training school, you put your own safety first, because you don’t know if this man is violent, you don’t know what he is going to do. Because we have a lot of attacks on drivers,” Mr Camara said.
The cause of Mr Farrell’s death was choking due to an impacted piece of meat lodged in his airway, according to an autopsy report. Risk factors included a high level of the sleep medication zopiclone and about six units of alcohol, which could have stifled the man’s gag reflex, the coroner said. Mr Farrell also had serious narrowing of the left coronary artery.
Dr Gallagher returned a narrative verdict setting out the circumstances of the death and said she would write to Dublin Bus outlining the family’s concerns about company protocol in dealing with medical emergencies.