Stroke victim’s body left in busy ward for 6 hours

THE body of man who had suffered a stroke and who died after falling from a hospital bed was left lying in a busy ward for six hours before being moved to a mortuary, where no postmortem was carried out.

A report into the man’s case by Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly published yesterday, criticised the failure of hospital staff to plan a postmortem on the 61-year-old, who, having been admitted with a stroke condition, suffered a bad fall and head injuries in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Dooradoyle, Limerick.

Among its shocking findings is that: “After ‘Mr Brown’ had died and while his body was lying in bed, on the busy ward, one of the tea ladies on her routine rounds drew back the screening curtains and asked members of the family whether Mr Brown would be having breakfast that morning.”