Mother tells of dying toddler's distress

A distraught mother told today she knew something was terribly wrong when her two-year-old daughter woke with the fear of God on her face complaining about a terrible pain in her stomach.

The inquest into the death of little Shannon Canny, from Kilkisheen in Co Clare, heard less than 48 hours later she was dead from a previously undetected rare congenital malformation of the bowel.

Her mother, Sharon Cannon, told the Dublin City Coroner’s Court her daughter woke at 12.05am on January 6, 2005 with an acute pain in her stomach.

“The fear of God was inside her, she was saying ’my belly, my belly’,” she said. “The fear of God was in her face I knew there was something awful wrong with her.”

She immediately rushed her to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick which was 10 minutes from the family’s home.

Mrs Canny said she was left waiting for 40 minutes after being asked questions about her daughter’s condition before she saw a doctor. She also said she was not informed about the condition of her daughter. The inquest heard Shannon and her twin had suffered from constipation previously.

Dr Roy Philip, a consultant paediatrician at the hospital, said a senior house officer saw Shannon around 2am and made a possible diagnosis of acute obstruction of the bowel. He said a decision had been made to transfer her to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin’s Crumlin.

Dr Philip said after he saw Shannon around 3am she was in shock and went on to have around four cardiac arrests while in A&E. He said it was only at 6am she could be safely moved to the Intensive Care Unit but the inquest heard it was decided Shannon would have to have to be stabilised and have surgery before she could be transferred.

Professor Pierce Grace, a consultant vascular surgeon at the Limerick hospital, said he operated on her around 9.30am in the morning. He detected a volvulous which is a twisting of the bowel which can lead to loss of blood supply and necrosis. Some of the bowel was removed. Prof Grace was in contact with a surgeon at the Crumlin hospital during the operation.

“We found Shannon had a congenital problem of the bowel, it doesn’t arrange itself in the abdomen correctly,” he said. “It twisted around on itself and cut off blood supply.”

After the operation, little Shannon was transferred by ambulance to Crumlin.

“Our intensive care unit is basically an adult intensive care unit and children such as Shannon should be treated in a paediatrics care unit,” Prof Grace said.

“The position on paediatric surgical services in Ireland is that outside of Dublin and Belfast there are no paediatric surgeons.”

After the inquest, Professor Grace said: “A case could be made for having a paediatric surgical unit somewhere in the west or south west of the country.”

The inquest heard 80% to 90% of people with the same condition as Shannon would not survive.

Professor Feargal Quinn, a consultant paediatric surgeon at the Crumlin hospital, said it was believed Shannon had suffered brain damage due to the cardiac arrests. The inquest heard before a further planned operation could take place Shannon had a further four cardiac arrests. He was pronounced dead at midday on January 7.

He said most people born with congenital malformations of the mid gut present with symptoms in the first four weeks of life, or first year, but in others it goes undetected.

“There may not have been and in this case there were no symptoms related to the malrotation,” he said. The inquest heard she was already in a serious condition when she went to the A&E at the Limerick hospital.

The coroner’s court heard she died from tissue necrosis due to complications of the twisting of the bowel.

A solicitor for the family, Paul Tuohy, said they had had concerns whether earlier intervention would have had a different result. Professor Quinn said the symptoms with which Shannon presented to the hospital could have indicated a number of different problems.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell, who passed a verdict of death by natural causes, said it appeared Shannon was already critically ill when she reached the hospital.