Death of epileptic patient could have been avoided: Doctor

The death of an epileptic patient could have been avoided, but the monitoring needed to decide if the person was suitable for surgery was unavailable at the time, a doctor said yesterday.

Consultant neurologist Daniel Costello said that, in the last three years, two of his patients have died of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy and that “one, possibly, could have benefited from surgery”.

Dr Costello referred to the deaths to highlight the fact that an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) at Cork University Hospital, where he works, remains closed, despite the very real risk of death to people with epilepsy, and the critical role the unit could play in deciding how best to treat them.