Father vows justice after daughter’s suicide

THE father of a young woman who hanged herself hours after being transferred from a private hospital to a public ward vowed last night to pursue the Department of Health though the courts until he got justice for his daughter.

Anne O’Rahilly, a 21-year-old student from Adare, Co Limerick, died in the public psychiatric unit of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital on September 20, 2002, just 16 hours after being transferred from St Patrick’s Private Hospital in Dublin because her health insurance was not adequate.

Her father, Jim O’Rahilly, is suing the Mid-Western Health Board for mental distress.

“I’ll pursue them to the end of my days to get justice for my daughter and to ensure that anyone else in this type of situation is treated with love, care and respect,” he said last night. “There were massive failings in my daughter’s case. There were failings not just in the system but there were failings by people too.”

An independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s death revealed a litany of communications and systems failures on behalf of doctors, nurses and the health authorities.

The report found that copies of letters which contained instructions from St Patrick’s regarding Ms O’Rahilly’s care at the Limerick hospital had glaring omissions due to photocopying blunders.

It found that a nurse who carried out the assessment on Ms O’Rahilly on her arrival in Dublin had not read the detailed information supplied by St Patrick’s and a doctor on call had “limited” training and supervision in adult psychiatry.

Ms O’Rahilly was admitted to St Patrick’s on September 13, 2002. Five days later her family was told she had insufficient health insurance and they were given until the following morning to decide if they could fund her care themselves.

Despite Ms O’Rahilly being identified as a serious suicide risk, she was discharged at 9pm on September 19 into her parents’ care. They brought her by train to the public hospital in Limerick, where she was admitted after midnight.

Staff found her hanging by a dressing gown belt from a shower curtain at 1.30pm on September 20.

“If it wasn’t for these failings, Anne would still be alive today,” Mr O’Rahilly said. “Lack of funding is only a mask for everything. I don’t know where the money is going but it’s the people working the system who are causing the problem,” he said.

Limerick West TD, Dan Neville, Fine Gael deputy spokesperson on health and children, said he was glad the report into Ms O’Rahilly’s death was now in the public domain.

“The O’Rahilly family have done an enormous service to the people of Ireland given the trauma they have suffered,” he said. “This case is endemic of what is happening in the mental health services all over Ireland.