Teen forced to travel for brain scan dies

AN 18-year-old with a serious brain injury was forced to travel for over five hours, wrapped in a sleeping bag in his family car, because a CAT scan machine at his nearby hospital is unavailable outside office hours.

The journey had such an impact on his health he had to be admitted to hospital immediately and died just days later, leaving behind his distraught parents and three younger brothers.

His mother’s enduring memory is of her helplessness as she cradled her eldest child and watched him deteriorate on the journey from Kilkenny to Dublin and back.