Woman strangled on strap trying to get out of bed

ALL nursing home staff should be properly trained in the use of restraining devices, an inquest jury recommended yesterday after hearing how an elderly woman strangled on a strap as she struggled to get out of her bed.

Dublin City Coroner Brian Farrell said he would write to the Northern Area Health Board and the management of St Gabriel’s nursing home in north Dublin, where long-term resident Ellen Murphy died last year.

Ms Murphy, 74, suffered immediate cardiac arrest after her neck was caught in a restraint, causing ligature strangulation.

She was strapped to the bed to stop her wandering at night and potentially falling and injuring herself but, in an attempt to extricate herself from the restraint, managed to slide down the bed.

Ms Murphy was found by a care assistant, her back against the side of the bed, with the strap around her neck.

Gardaí investigated the death but found nothing suspicious. The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

The court heard that staff are meant to receive training in how to attach restraints and each new member is expected to read detailed manufacturers’ instructions. A care assistant testified that she never did any course and was not aware of the instruction leaflet. Both the nursing home matron Maura Hooper and assistant matron Siobhán Murphy said if the straps had been properly put in place, the woman would not have able to manoeuvre her way down the bed.

But care assistant Joanne O’Brien, who was looking after Ms Murphy the morning she died and discovered her body, said the patient had previously managed to get out of bed, the last time just an hour before she was found. Ms Hooper said she was not aware that it happened before.

The woman, who spent decades in care institutions after being diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and depression in her 20s, was otherwise in remarkably good physical health, a post mortem examination carried out by the State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy revealed. There was some evidence of atrophy to be brain, suggesting mild dementia.

The Store Street court heard that Ms Murphy had only one living relative, an elderly female cousin. She was not in court and had no legal representation.

Ms Murphy’s body was found shortly before 7am on March 19. A staff nurse attempted emergency resuscitation, though the emergency services or a doctor were not called.

After bringing in the death by misadventure verdict, the jury recommended that all staff be properly trained and retrained in the use of all restraining devices; that a record be kept and that instructions be followed diligently.