Doctor died after migraine misdiagnosis
Cork City Coroner’s Court recorded a verdict of death by medical misadventure after hearing details about Dr Niamh Long’s death in CUH on January 12 last.
The mother of three, who was originally from Glounthaune, Co Cork, was a respected GP from Endsleigh on the Douglas Road.
She presented at CUH on January 6 but was discharged a few hours later after Dr Gergely Halasz, the emergency department registrar, diagnosed her with a migraine. He said that based on her symptoms at that time, he believed a CT scan was not needed but said yesterday that his “migraine diagnosis” was wrong.
The inquest was also told that Dr Long was prescribed medication which was not licensed here and that her husband, Eoin Clifford, had to go back to CUH after she was discharged to get the right prescription from a different doctor.
The following day, Dr Long was disorientated and complained of nausea, neck pain and about bright lights.
GP Kieran O’Keeffe was concerned about her and he phoned Professor Stephen Cusack, the head of CUH’s emergency department.
Dr Long was re-admitted to the hospital where a CT scan revealed a bleed in her brain due to a ruptured aneurysm — an abnormal widening or ballooning of part of an artery.
Neurosurgeon Charles Marks carried out emergency brain surgery on January 8 to “clip” the aneurysm and halt the bleeding.
It was a complex and high-risk operation on one of the main arteries which supplied oxygen to Dr Long’s brain and during the procedure, the clip cut part of the artery wall.
Mr Marks told Assistant City Coroner Philip Comyn he tried to fix it.
“I tried as hard as I could. This was one-and-a-half hours of desperation. This was one of the most desperate things I have done in a long career in neurosurgery. I don’t panic but I was as close to panic as I get.”
He eventually had to clip off the entire carotid artery to stem the bleed.
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