Pensioner drowned in hospital bath, inquest hears

A 76-year-old woman, who had a history of depression, drowned in a bath at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, an inquest heard tonight.

Nurse Filemon Pachico told how he found a patient, Kathleen Curtin, of Malahide Road, Kinsealy face down in a bath full of water on May 23, 2004.

Her daughter, Patricia, said: “I guess whether it is suicide or accident, I guess this is where we are today without our mom.

“There is also a responsibility on medical and psychiatric staff that compounded to the way my mother felt.”

She added: “My mother went into Beaumont Hospital. In there she may have taken her own life but she didn’t come out.”

The family of Mrs Curtin told the court that her assessment by the psychiatric team at the hospital “was too little, too late for her“.

Dr Mary Cosgrove, a specialist in geriatric psychiatry who worked partly at St Ita’s Hospital in Portrane and in Beaumont Hospital, said the staff had done everything they could for Mrs Curtin.

She said: “I honestly feel we did all we could do in terms of Mrs Curtin’s care assessment.”

A statement from Dr Ann Marie Feeley, from Beaumont’s psychiatric unit, said that throughout several assessments they did not believe she had any suicidal thoughts.

She was described as having moderate depression and had been placed on medication.

Dr Cosgrove said that Mrs Curtin, who had been a patient there for a month, had indicated suicide was against her religious faith.

The inquest heard that Mrs Curtin, who had been previously treated for depression, had been asked if she would like to be admitted to St Ita’s Hospital in Portrane for treatment but she was “anxious” to avoid this.

A convalescence home had been booked for Mrs Curtin before her death.

Her daughter said the discussions over possible admission to St Ita’s had led to a lot of “confusion” for her mother.

Dr Cosgrove said that if there had been active suicidal thoughts the patient would have been transferred to a specialised ward.

The coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, who passed an open verdict, said he would write to the hospital to inform them of the family’s concerns without prejudice.

“I do not say that Mrs Curtin did not take her own life but the evidence does not establish that she did take her own life beyond a reasonable doubt,” the coroner said.

The pathologist, Dr Peter Holloway, found that Mrs Curtin had died by drowning.

Nurse Pachico said he believed that Mrs Curtin had went to the en-suite toilet for her morning wash as he worked on St Luke’s Ward on May 23.

However, he said that when he went looking for her around 9.30am that day - after she was last seen at around 8.45am – he found the door of another main toilet on the corridor locked.

The Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard that after they unlocked the door they discovered Mrs Curtin.

He said: “I saw her lying face down in a bath full of water.” The court heard her glasses had been taken off and placed on a nearby unit and she was fully dressed in her nightwear.

She was pronounced dead at the scene despite resuscitation attempts.