Mother died days after routine surgery on legs, inquest hears

A mother of three died just over a week after routine surgery to remove varicose veins from her legs, an inquest has heard.

Karen McCabe, aged 46, of Bewley Drive, Lucan, Dublin, underwent radiofrequency oblation, a minimally invasive procedure to remove extensive varicose veins at the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin on August 6, 2014.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard she died due to a blood clot in the lung nine days after her surgery, according to Dr Jane Thorne, who carried out the autopsy.

Ms McCabe had presented at Beaumont Hospital on August 14 and died the following morning.

She had contacted the Bon Secours three days previously complaining of pain, the court heard. Staff nurse Emma Thompson took a call from Ms McCabe on August 12. The consultant surgeon who carried out the procedure, Austin Leahy, was at his holiday home at Ballydavid, Co Kerry, at the time.

Answering questions from David Holland, for the family, Ms Thompson said she did not contact Prof Leahy as per hospital policy because she believed the patient was going to see her GP.

“She had pain in her knee that worsened on mobilisation and improved with rest. She rang to say she was still in pain and could she get another prescription,” said Ms Thompson.

Ms McCabe told the nurse not to contact Prof Leahy as she didn’t want to disturb him, according to Ms Thompson.

Prof Leahy stressed that he was “available at all times”, even though the signal was poor at his holiday home.

Clinical nurse manager Ingrid Mangan said no computer mechanism was in place at the hospital to contact consultants via text message and staff did not gener-ally use personal phones at work.

“Prof Leahy, in requiring texts, was depending on a system that just didn’t exist,” said Mr Holland.

Ms McCabe attended the Bon Secours on August 13 in “severe pain”, three days before her death.

“She was in some distress, she was examined by the house doctor, she had pain in her knee on movement,” said Ms Mangan.

The court heard Dr Kingsley Oputteh, senior house officer at the Bon Secours, felt an ultrasound was required to rule out what staff suspected was deep vein thrombosis. Prof Leahy was not present to authorise the tests. Dr Oputteh was not permitted to authorise the tests due to hospital policy, the court heard.

“The consultant that wasn’t present would normally give us advice,” said Ms Mangan.

Ms McCabe was advised to go to Beaumont and was provided with a referral letter, but she didn’t attend the emergency department at Beaumont until the following day, August 14. She went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead the following morning.

The inquest was adjourned pending evidence from further witnesses.