Grieving parents got wrong lab results
Joseph O’Donnell, aged 30, was found dead in a city centre apartment on Dec 7, 2010. An inquest held by city coroner, John McNamara on April 4, 2011, recorded an open verdict.
Another man also named Joseph O’Donnell, aged 48, died in violent circumstances in the city on Oct 1, 2010. His brain had been removed during a postmortem and sent to the state laboratory.
Last week, Pa and Teresa O’Donnell, parents of Joseph O’Donnell who died on Dec 7, 2010, were informed their son’s brain had been removed during a postmortem. The couple was asked to arrange to have an undertaker recover it from the state laboratory.
The wrong information, it emerged, had been relayed by another coroner’s office in Limerick — Dr Tony Casey’s — as the couple were the next-of-kin.
However, it emerged yesterday Pa O’Donnell also received a toxicology test report and a pathology report but both were in the names of a Jason O’Donnell.
When he brought it to the attention of city coroner, John McNamara, he had the departments who issued the reports amend them to the correct name — Joseph O’Donnell.
Pa O’Donnell said yesterday: “We were told about collecting our son’s brains which were never taken from his body and then we get wrong information in official reports. We can’t keep putting up with this. Who’s at fault here.This is not good enough at all. My wife is in a bad way; to lose our son and then, add to our grief, wrong information being put on official documents when we looked for information about how he died.”
Cllr John Gilligan, a former mayor of Limerick and a family friend, said: “It is totally unacceptable that Pa and Teresa should be put through this. They are devastated. This entire case needs to be looked at thoroughly by the HSE so that there is enough information on files in future to ensure nothing like this happens again. . . This should not happen and the HSE must take steps to ensure this never happens to another family.”
