Family of teen who died in 2010 get HSE report
The probe, originally due to take three months, was launched after an ambulance service whistle-blower provided information about the incident.
The 17-year-old boy fell ill at a student accommodation complex on the University of Limerick campus in October 2010. He had been a student at another college in Limerick.
An emergency call was made to the ambulance service. The call was not immediately passed to an ambulance crew. When a crew was dispatched, they allegedly requested permission to stop at a local garda station.
According to ambulance service sources, they did so to make or complete a statement to gardaĂ on another issue.
While the crew was at the garda station, another emergency call was received, reporting that the student’s condition had deteriorated.
The ambulance crew was contacted again and was requested to respond to the call immediately. However, by the time they had arrived at the scene, the teenager had suffered a cardiac arrest.
He was taken to the Mid Western Regional Hospital (now University Hospital Limerick), where, shortly afterwards, he was pronounced dead.
In early 2014, almost four years after the incident, ambulance paramedics broke their silence on the matter, claiming the incident had been “covered up” and said they wanted the circumstances fully investigated.
Paramedics have also claimed that while the matter was probed internally within the ambulance service, a report was sent to senior management, but nothing was done about it.
The NAS was asked a series of questions, including claims that recordings of radio communications on the day had been erased.
Over two years after the review was ordered, the HSE confirmed that a full review of the incident had been completed and that the family were in possession of a final draft. It is not known if the final report will be made public.
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