'Bryonny should still be here': Parents to meet Tánaiste over delayed report into daughter's death

Bryonny Sainsbury died after she suffered a serious brain injury after she was kicked in the head by a horse on August 26, 2021. Picture: RIP.ie

The parents of a young woman whose death was ruled a result of medical misadventure will meet with the Tánaiste on Thursday as they await a delayed report into her death.

Alison and Chris Sainsbury’s 25-year-old daughter Bryonny suffered a serious brain injury after she was kicked in the head by a horse on August 26, 2021.

A photo of Bryonny Sainsbury who died from her injuries in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin after originally being treated at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Bryonny, of Briskil, Newtownforbes, Co Longford, died from her injuries in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin five days later, after originally being treated at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.

An inquest into her death returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure.

Bryonny’s family are waiting for the finalisation of a review into her death by the HSE, which the family expected to have been completed a year ago.

However, last month the family received correspondence from the Ireland East Hospital Group, issued to their solicitor, which stated that while the report is at an advanced stage, it is subject to a legal review and is not completed. The review team has received legal advice outlining that the draft report cannot be shown to the family until the “required processes” under the Incident Management Framework 2020 “have been completed in full”, according to the letter.

The couple's local TD, Joe Flaherty, has organised for them to meet Micheál Martin in Leinster House on Thursday afternoon to highlight their concerns to him about Bryonny’s case.

Alison said: "I just want to know why it happened in this day and age? And why is it still happening? 

It has happened in many hospitals. Unless people start shouting, nothing will ever change. Bryonny should still be here.

She added: "We shouldn't have to be living the way we are living and Bryonny should still be here living. We are fighting for the person who should still be here."

In issuing the inquest verdict in February, coroner Dr Cróna Gallagher referenced concerns raised by Alison and her husband Chris about their daughter’s condition while in the Mullingar hospital, as well as querying why she had not been transferred to Beaumont sooner.

She also acknowledged that a consultant neurosurgeon from Beaumont had assessed scans taken of Bryonny as showing her condition was deteriorating.

In issuing the inquest verdict in February, coroner Dr Cróna Gallagher referenced concerns raised by Alison (right) and her husband Chris (left) about their daughter’s condition while in the Mullingar hospital, as well as querying why she had not been transferred to Beaumont sooner. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The family had expected the review to be completed within 125 days.

Alison says that the family received a letter on October 13, 2021, less than two months after Bryonny’s death, informing them that the review team was being put together. The team was completed in December 2022.

The family had a meeting with the team on March 13 last year in a hotel in Mullingar and she says they were told they would receive a report within four weeks.

The latest delay was conveyed to them on the day of the medical misadventure verdict in the inquest into the death of Clare teenager Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick.