Paramedic tells how friend died by falling out ambulance side door
PJ Cahill, who was driving the ambulance on the N3 Cavan to Dublin road, said he heard a thud and looked in a mirror to see his 43-year-old friend, Simon Sexton, a father of six, hit the ground.
Mr Cahill, who has launched a High Court action for nervous shock as a result of witnessing the incident, said he jammed on the brakes and ran back to find Mr Sexton lying face down near the grassy verge.
Three years ago, the HSE was fined €500,000 for health and safety breaches as a result of the June 2010 death.
In the High Court yesterday, Mr Justice Raymond Fullam was told by Mr Cahill’s counsel, Frank Callanan, that the case would centre on the side door.
Mr Callahan said Mr Sexton had seen a crack of light at the top of the side door and went to secure it as the ambulance was moving with a patient and a nurse in the back as well.
Mr Callahan said the side door did not open in the direction of forward travel and that was the immediate cause of the death. He said that in 2007 there had been an incident in Kerry with an ambulance from the same batch and a similarily fitted door.
In evidence, Mr Cahill said when he radioed in to the Cavan Ambulance Service that a paramedic had fallen out of the ambulance, there was, “for a second”, silence at the other end of the radio before he was told another ambulance was being dispatched to the scene.
“I grabbed the resuscitation bag. I started resuscitation and kept it going until the ambulance arrived.”
He said he travelled in the second ambulance trying to resuscitate Mr Sexton until they reached Cavan General Hospital where a consultant had been put on standby. Mr Sexton was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
Mr Cahill, aged 50, from Kilnagarbet, Stradone, Co Cavan has sued his employers the HSE and the German manufacturer of the ambulance Wietmarscher Ambulanz Und Sonderf Ahrzeug GMBH for nervous shock.
The claims are denied by both defendants.
The case continues.
