Wheelchair fall contributed to death

A 52-year-old woman would not have died at Roscommon County Hospital in February if she had not fallen down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair at the hospital six days earlier, an inquest heard yesterday.

Prof Michael Farrell, consultant neuro-pathologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, said Ann Macklin, of Tibarney, Four Roads, Co Roscommon, had sustained a significant head injury on Feb 15.

The head injury was not the immediate cause of death but contributed to it, Prof Farrell told an inquest in Ballaghaderreen, which was conducted by coroner Desmond O’Connor.

Ms Macklin, who had multiple sclerosis, sustained a fractured eye socket and a dislocated shoulder, and required a number of head stitches.

She afterward contracted pneumonia and died at the hospital on Feb 21.

Prof Farrell said the MS was relatively inactive but Ms Macklin had previously suffered a large stroke, which caused weakness in her left arm and left leg.

He said his opinion was Ms Macklin would not have died if she had not fallen down the stairs.

Nurse Olivia Martin, said Ms Macklin was lying on her side after the fall and was moaning but alert. She was bleeding from the right side of her forehead.

After consulting with the nurse registrar, Ms Martin and a porter brought Ms Macklin back to her ward.

Patricia Morgan, clinical nursing manager at Roscommon County Hospital, told Jeananne McGovern BL, for the HSE, that following the fall new measures had been put in place at the hospital to ensure such incidents did not happened again.

An inquest jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.