‘Communication failures’ delayed neck injury diagnosis

A BREAKDOWN in communication led to an elderly woman spending three weeks in hospital before doctors discovered she had a fractured neck.

The injury sustained by Louise O’Mullane, 85, in her Turner’s Cross, Cork home last October, sparked a chain of events which led to her death, Cork City Coroner’s Court was told.

A senior medic at Cork University Hospital (CUH) admitted there had been a “communication breakdown” between the clinical and radiology specialities which meant the injury wasn’t spotted sooner.