Surgeon was ‘devastated’ by unexpected death during op

One of the country’s leading surgeons has spoken of his devastation at the unexpected death of a mother of four during an uncomplicated elective surgical procedure.

Eircom accounts clerk Kathleen O’Neill, aged 51, of Ryehill, Abbeyknockmoy, Co Galway, would never have died if she had not undergone the procedure for an overactive thyroid, Michael Kerin agreed yesterday.

Heartbroken husband Mattie told Ms O’Neill’s inquest in Galway yesterday that his wife had gone into Galway University Hospital for a routine procedure as a healthy woman “and she came out in a box — a coffin”.