A woman in her eighties who fell on hospital grounds waited more than three hours to see a doctor, an inquest heard.
The family of Imelda McDonnell (86) from Lorcan Avenue in Santry, Dublin 9 called for improved protocols for the treatment of elderly patients following an inquest into her death.
Mrs McDonnell was leaving the warfarin clinic at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin accompanied by her daughter when she fell. She had been on warfarin following heart surgery in 2009.
There was construction work taking place on the ramp exiting the clinic when Mrs McDonnell fell on March 9th, 2015.
Susan Lynch went to collect her mother from the clinic. She was breathless and tired leaving the building and sat on her a walker to be wheeled to the car.
At the bottom of the ramp the walker tipped backwards and both Ms Lynch and her mother fell.
“I was unable to prevent it,” Ms Lynch said. She drove her mother to the emergency department at at Beaumont Hospital, a journey of less than one minute.
Mrs McDonnell was triaged at 3.25pm, she was seen by a doctor at 7pm and a CT of her brain was taken at 7.45pm.
At 10.45pm the scan results showed she had suffered a fractured skull and a brain hemorrhage. The neurosurgery team advised against surgery. Ms McDonnell’s condition deteriorated rapidly from 3am onwards and she was pronounced dead the following morning at 11am.
The cause of death was traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage due to a fall in a patient on warfarin, according to an autopsy.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of accidental death.
Speaking after the inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court, solicitor for the family Niall Corr said the woman’s children were upset by how she was treated at the emergency department and called for more stringent protocols for the improved treatment of vulnerable and elderly patients.
The coroner said she would contact the hospital with regard to the movement of vulnerable patients around the hospital grounds.