Coroner urges procedures for drunk taxi passengers
Philomena O’Keeffe, 58, choked on her own vomit in the hall of 38 Leesdale, off Model Farm Road in Cork — a house she shared with her partner Edward O’Riordan — minutes after she was dropped home by a taxi driver at about 6.40pm on February 2 last.
Yellow Cabs driver Ken Kelleher told Cork City Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane that Ms O’Keeffe was very drunk and had to be helped to her door.
She collapsed in the hallway and Mr Kelleher alerted a neighbour and the gardaí and left. It was not described, or treated as, an emergency.
But concerned, he contacted gardaí again just over an hour later, and was shocked to be told she had died.
A post mortem revealed Ms O’Keeffe had 320 milligrams of alcohol per centilitre (350 mg/c is a fatal dose), and traces of prescribed drugs which combined, had suppressed her gag reflex. She choked on her own vomit.
Family solicitor Eamon Murray said it was difficult for her family to accept she had been lying in the hall for over an hour before an ambulance arrived.
The inquest heard how Ms O’Keeffe, who was described as “gentle, quiet, generous and a caring mother”, had been drinking since about 3pm that day in the Vicarstown Bar on North Main Street.
She fell asleep during the 10-minute journey to Leesdale and was incoherent when they arrived.
Mr Kelleher described how he helped her unbuckle her seat belt, picked up the contents of her spilled handbag, and helped her walk to a patio door.
“She managed to put her keys in the door and open it. But then she just fell flat on her face, with her hands down by her side,” he said.
“She went smack into the ground and made no sound. I stepped over her and turned on the light. I could hear her breathing, it was slurpy and I didn’t see any blood.”
Mr Kelleher ran back to his car to alert the base. He was told he had done all he could.
He grabbed his mobile phone and went back to Ms O’Keeffe and dialled garda headquarters at Anglesea Street.
He also alerted Ms O’Keeffe’s neighbour Michael Quirke.
Mr Quirke said: “I looked in the door and her head moved. She muttered something. I’ve often seen her in that position.”
He said he assumed she would just wake up later and go to bed.
Although Mr Kelleher first reported the incident before 7pm, garda headquarters did not alert Bishopstown gardaí to the situation until 7.50pm. A patrol car was on the scene at 8.05pm.
Garda Peter Nolan said it was not described as an emergency. Dr Cullinane recorded a verdict of death due to misadventure.
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