Patient attacked sleeping woman

A seriously injured grandmother was “savagely attacked” by a male patient while she was sleeping in her bed at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

The patient entered the 72-year-old woman’s room and attempted to remove the grandmother of eight from her bed, punching and kicking her all over her body.

The woman, who has now returned to her home in Caherdavin, was being treated at UHL for four weeks after undergoing surgery to her kidney and liver, and had 10 blood transfusions.

Her husband was called to the Dooradoyle hospital at 11.50pm on the night of the incident by a nurse. He said she was sleeping when the assailant entered her room and attacked her.

When he went to his wife’s bedside, he saw that she was “hysterical”.

“She was stuck in the corner of the bed, like a cat who was scared in the corner of the room. That’s the way she was,” he said.

Describing the attack, which took place on the night of Easter Saturday, he said: “She was black and blue. He then kicked her along the legs, and she was black and blue. He was just digging her, and he was roaring at her, saying: ‘Get out of the bed’.

"He was trying to pull the bedclothes off her. This is a woman who was taking her medication and her sleeping pills, and the next minute she is attacked in her own bed.”

He said gardaí were called to the scene on Sunday morning, but the woman was “too traumatised” to be interviewed. Gardaí are due to take a statement this week.

The husband said a retired nurse and a male patient led the assailant out of the room.

The victim is recovering at home but is still shocked.

“For the whole night, last night, she cried,” said the husband. “It all came back to her. She actually said to me: ‘If I start crying, I won’t stop.’

"And I said to her: ‘When you get the way that you want to cry, it has to come out.’ And last night when she was in bed, she started crying, and I had my arms around her. And I started crying too.”

The UL Hospitals Group said it was “aware of an incident involving a patient which took place Saturday evening, April 15, in a ward in UHL”.

It said: “UL Hospital Group recognises the upset the incident caused the patient and has offered its apologies to the patient and their family. The incident is under review. However, UL Hospitals Group is unable to provide any further information in order to protect patient confidentiality.”

Willie O’Dea, a Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick City, accused the hospital of “gross negligence”.