Publish my daughter’s suicide report, says father

A LIMERICK father last night called on the Government to publish a report into the suicide of his daughter in a Limerick hospital.

The 21-year-old student from Adare had a history of depression. She hanged herself in a public psychiatric hospital unit 16 hours after being transferred from a private hospital because her health insurance was inadequate. Anne O’Rahilly died on September 20, 2002. She had been transferred from St Patrick’s Private Hospital in Dublin to the public psychiatric unit at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

An expert group report on her death, which has never been made public, showed communications and systems failures on behalf of doctors, nurses and the health authorities in general leading up to Ms O’Rahilly’s suicide.