€600k for man whose wife died in A&E

AN AMBULANCE driver who watched his wife die while he pleaded for help for her in an accident and emergency room has secured €600,000 in settlement of his damage claim against the Health Service Executive, the High Court heard yesterday.

James McCarthy, of O’Connell’s Avenue, Turner’s Cross, Cork, sued the HSE arising out of the death of his wife Catherine in Cork University Hospital on March 21, 2005. The HSE admitted liability.

Making the award plus costs yesterday, Mr Justice John Quirke expressed his deepest sympathy at what he said was “an appalling experience” for Mr McCarthy, aged 46, and his children Ryan, aged 19, and Ethan, aged 17, to have had to endure.