Judge died of heart disease, inquest told

Circuit Court judge Con Murphy could have died at any time from extensive natural disease of the heart, an inquest heard yesterday.

But Cork City Coroner’s Court was told that Klacid, a drug used as part of ‘triple therapy’ for an ulcer, could have played a minor contributory role in his death in the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork last year.

Assistant state pathologist, Dr Margot Bolster, said the drug could have been one of several “trigger factors” in the judge’s sudden fatal cardiac event.

Judge Murphy, 51, from Laurel Walk, Bandon, Co Cork, died in the Bon Secours on Aug 1, 2011.

The lengthy inquest into his death heard how his GP referred him to the hospital on Jul 27 last after finding low haemoglobin levels.

Dr William Fennell, who had been treating the judge since he suffered a stroke in 2002, said despite a long history of an irregular heartbeat, he was “cardiologically stable” on admission.

An endoscopy on Jul 29 found a chronic duodenal ulcer with no active bleeding. He was then put on ‘triple therapy’. Klacid is part of the treatment.

Nurse Mary Spillane said she checked the judge several times during the night of Jul 31, and that he was comfortable. However, she found him slumped in his bed at 6.45am on Aug 1 and raised the alarm. Despite 45 minutes of cardiac resuscitation, he was pronounced dead.

John O’Mahony, counsel for Judge Murphy’s widow, Miriam, argued that Klacid should not have been given to a patient with three heart rhythm abnormalities. He said Judge Murphy’s 15-year-old niece, Orla, died in 2007 from sudden cardiac death, and his first cousin, Áine, died in 2004, aged 19, from the same condition.

Dr Bolster said she consulted with cardiac pathologist, Dr Mary Shepherd, who compared Judge Murphy’s and Orla’s cases. She said they both agreed the cases were entirely different.

Judge Murphy’s death was not caused by channelopathy — an electrical storm in the heart which caused Orla’s death, she insisted.

Her postmortem found the judge had a very enlarged heart, that he had low haemoglobin and a raised BMI, all of which would have put him at risk of a sudden cardiac event at any time. She accepted that Klacid could have played a minor contributory role.

The official cause of death was recorded as a sudden cardiac event due to extensive disease of the heart’s pumping chamber, with contributory factors including low haemoglobin, in association with an ulcer, warfarin and a raised BMI.

City coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, recorded a narrative verdict.