Daughter denies neglecting malnourished mother

The daughter of a bed-ridden woman who died days after being found in a severely malnourished state today said she had done her best to look after her.

Evelyn Joel, who lived with her daughter’s family in Enniscorthy, weighed under four stone when she died in Wexford Hospital at the weekend.

She was found severely malnourished and lying in her own excrement after her daughter Eleanor Joel called an ambulance on New Years Day.

She had been confined to her bed since September.

Today Eleanor said her mother had multiple sclerosis, and was suffering from septicaemia when she was admitted to hospital.

She said she had been very tempted to call a doctor or social services as her mother deteriorated, but Ms Joel had not wanted any help.

“I did my best and I couldn’t do any more for her, and I had no help doing it, I did it all on my own.”

Eleanor said her mother was a strong-willed woman, and she didn’t want to go against her wishes.

“She said, ‘no leave it alone, I don’t want help, I don’t want to go to a nursing home, I don’t want to see doctors, I don’t want nothing, or nobody’.” Eleanor told RTÉ’s Liveline.

“I felt I was going against her wishes by getting help.”

Ms Joel had been confined to her room since September, only leaving to take a bath, and had started to refuse food in the middle of December when her partner died, Eleanor said.

“She had orange and water and coffee and tea, I’d bring her up everything to try and make her eat.

“I’d bring her soft stuff that she wouldn’t have to chew, like custard and potatoes and trifle and stuff, she refused to eat it.”

The mother-of-two said she didn’t realise how small Ms Joel had become.

And she said the ambulance crew had found her mother lying in her own excrement because she kept taking off her incontinence pads.

Eleanor said she had constantly looked in on her mother, who had stopped speaking to her two days before New Year.

“She wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t speak to me, she wouldn’t do nothing for me,” she said.

Eleanor said she didn’t realise how far her mother had deteriorated until New Year’s Eve and had decided to call an ambulance on New Year’s Day.

“She hadn’t spoken to me in a day and when I told I had to get her an ambulance, she said ‘No’, and that was her last word to me.”

Eleanor said she was very upset at her mother’s funeral.

Ms Joel’s brothers and sisters – who were estranged from her – have claimed they were not able to see their sister in the months before her death.

But although Eleanor admitted she didn’t speak to half of them, she said she would have let them visit if they had wanted because they were family.

The case has caused a national outcry and the Tánaiste Mary Harney said there were ‘huge failings’ leading to Ms Joel’s death.

The gardaí and the Health Service Executive have both launched investigations into the tragedy.

Eleanor said she was very worried about the future, but she said she would co-operate fully with all investigations.

And she described people who were criticising her as small-minded.