Bereaved family had ‘grave concern’ over doctor’s level of care

THE family of a woman who died at St James’ Hospital in Dublin five days after being admitted with repeated complaints of vomiting and stomach cramps has expressed “grave concern” about the level of care provided by a doctor at the hospital.

An Irish Medical Council inquiry in Dublin yesterday heard Colette Donohoe felt “bunched” more than 24 hours before she died after vomiting brown fluid which was likened to “bad diarrhoea”.

Ms Donohoe, a 54-year-old mother of two from Derry Road, Crumlin, died on August 22, 2006, as a result of complications from an obstruction to her bowel by a hernia.

Consultant surgeon Dr Javaid Butt, who is the subject of the inquiry by the IMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee, is facing five counts of professional misconduct. They include allegations Dr Butt failed to arrange adequate treatment for Ms Donohoe and that he failed adequately to monitor her condition and keep adequate medical records.

Dr Butt, 52, who also works in private practice at the Hermitage Medical Clinic in Lucan, Co Dublin, is also accused of failing to arrange timely surgical intervention to remove a bowel obstruction in the patient and of failing to apply an adequate standard of judgment and competence in her treatment.

The inquiry heard Ms Donohoe was not sent for a CT scan until the day she died, despite one being recommended on the day of her admission to St James’ five days earlier.

The patient’s daughter, Jennifer Donohoe, said she and her family were concerned at how her mother had deteriorated during her stay in hospital. “At no time did my mam improve. She was progressively getting worse. Nothing was done and we were getting no information.”

The dead woman’s brother, Noel Moran, told the hearing he was “absolutely shocked” by his sister’s condition when he visited her on August 21, 2008. “What came out of Colette’s mouth was absolutely putrid. It was like bad diarrhoea.”

Ms Donohoe’s family said they found it hard to understand how they were told in the hours before she died by Dr Evan Coughlan that she was “very sick”, while Dr Butt, a short time later, reassured them she would have to undergo a routine operation from which she would make a full recovery and be able to do “light housekeeping” within three weeks.

In a letter to the IMC, Dr Butt said Ms Donohoe had been provided with the standard care for someone who was complaining of a bowel obstruction. He accused the Donohoe family of writing “wild aggressive” letters to the IMC about him.

Expert witness Professor David Bouchier-Hayes said it was totally unacceptable there were virtually no medical records of doctors attending Ms Donohoe over the weekend she spent at St James’. Prof Bouchier-Hayes also said an opportunity was missed to discontinue conservative treatment of Ms Donohoe’s condition after she was recorded having eight episodes of vomiting. He claimed she should have been operated on by at least August 21, 2006, the day before she died.

“By the time the decision to proceed with surgery was taken, the patient was mortally ill and was unlikely to be salvaged by any intervention,” said Prof Bouchier-Hayes.

Conor Halpin, for Dr Butt, said it appeared the criticism by the Donohoe family appeared to be more about the hospital system rather than against his client.

The hearing resumes on Monday.