Report to find hospital staff misled gardaí

A LONG-AWAITED report on the death of a 75-year-old woman in a north Cork hospital is expected to claim hospital staff gave contradictory and misleading evidence to gardaí about how she died.

It is also likely to agree with post mortem results which found Hannah Comber was choked to death by a restraining belt being used to hold her in a chair at Heatherside hospital in June 2006.

The report will also claim there was no evidence to support a suggestion by staff that the woman had died as a result of a seizure. Nevertheless, it will agree with existing conclusions that the death was accidental.

The belt was bound round Ms Comber’s waist, but it is thought she fell asleep and slipped down causing the buckle to compress her neck. She had been restrained because, on the night in question, she had become restless after getting out of bed.

An inquest was later told there was no written policy in the hospital on the use of restraint chairs, or for dealing with a sudden death.

However, when gardaí went to the hospital in the hours after Ms Comber’s death, they were told staff on duty had washed and cleaned the woman’s body. They were not told she had choked on the ligature. That only emerged after the post mortem. Nevertheless, a Garda investigation into the incident concluded quickly and the Director of Public Prosecutions said there should be no charges.

However, it took the independent team which investigated Hannah Comber’s death almost three years to complete a draft report.

The team blamed the delay on difficulties trying to speak to one of the staff members on duty on the night in question.

At the start of April the HSE said it expected to receive a copy of the report within four to six weeks and it said it would publish it “in the interests of her family, public confidence in their services, as well as openness and transparency.”

Last night, a HSE spokeswoman said: “The HSE has received the report of the independent investigation team into the death of Hannah Comber at Heatherside hospital in north Cork in June 2006. The HSE has sought legal advice on the report which is currently under consideration.”

She was unable to say when the report would be made public or respond to reports of what it contained.