Woman died as heart machine failed

NO external power supply was available to run a heart machine after its battery failed during the transfer of a critically ill woman between two Dublin hospitals, an inquest at Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.

Anne Scattergood, 77, of Seagrange Road, Baldoyle, Dublin 13, was being brought by ambulance from Beaumont Hospital to the Mater Hospital on July 21, 2009, when an intra aortic balloon pump machine, which was assisting her blood pressure, stopped working.

Her condition deteriorated and she was rushed to the Mater as an emergency transfer, where she was pronounced dead 45 minutes after arrival.