Lack of post-op facilities criticised

A DOCTOR representing the family of a woman who died suddenly following routine surgery has criticised the Bon Secours Hospital in Glasnevin for not having facilities to deal with common post-operative complications when they carry out operations.

An inquest into the death of Una Fitzgerald Hanrahan also heard how hospital protocol was not followed after her operation.

Ms Fitzgerald Hanrahan, aged 39, of Lower Kimmage Road, Dublin 6, died at the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin on August 21, 2010.

She was admitted to the hospital the previous day for a lumbar discectomy — routine spinal surgery to remove a disc in the back.

Ms Fitzgerald Hanrahan began suffering pain and breathing problems soon after the operation. She quickly became unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest.

Pathologist Dr Alan Beausang said a pulmonary embolism (a clot in the lung) was the immediate cause of death. He was of the view the embolism formed only after the surgery.

Nurse Carmel Badoy told the hearing she made a clinical decision to put Ms Hanrahan on oxygen “as she was a smoker and on medication that affected respiration”.

A physiotherapist attended Ms Fitzgerald shortly after 11am on August 21. She was put on oxygen but became cyanosed (skin colour turned blue due to an oxygen deficiency in the blood) and unresponsive.

Her heart went into an asystolic state, a cardiac team was called and life-support treatment was initiated.

Counsel Dr Simon Mills was critical that hospital standards for administering oxygen were departed from on two occasions and that there was no facilities to treat pulmonary embolism, a known post-operative complication, in a hospital that carries out operations.

Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell recorded a narrative verdict.