'He was very empathetic': Parents meet Tánaiste over delayed HSE report into daughter's death

Chris and Alison Sainsbury during the Coroners Court inquest into the death of their daughter Bryonny Sainsbury. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The parents of a young woman whose death was ruled a result of medical misadventure earlier this year are hopeful a meeting with the Tánaiste will help expedite a report into the circumstances of her death.

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

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.

Her parents met with Tánaiste Micheal Martin at Leinster House on Thursday evening to raise their concerns with him about the nature of her death, and the delay in a review into her care by the HSE, which the family expected to have been completed a year ago.

Ms Sainsbury said: “He is going to look into what is the delay with the report. He was very empathetic.” 

Last month, the family received correspondence from the Ireland East Hospital Group, issued to their solicitor, which said while the report was at an advanced stage, it is subject to a legal review and is not completed. 

Bryonny Sainsbury died from her injuries in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin five days later, after originally being treated at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.

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, organised Thursday’s meeting for the family and they were accompanied by their legal team at it.

After the meeting, which lasted up to an hour, during which the Sainsburys told the Tánaiste of the trauma they had been suffering since Bryonny’s death, Ms Sainsbury said: “We think this will expedite our case. 

“Hopefully we will get answers and that it [the report] will be expedited because it needs to be. We are worn out. We are reliving it each time we are telling about it. We do want to speak about Bryonny but in a good text.” 

In issuing the inquest verdict in February, coroner Dr Crona 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 a consultant neurosurgeon from Beaumont had assessed scans taken of Bryonny as showing her condition was deteriorating.

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

Alison said the family received a letter on October 13, 2021, less than two months after Bryonny’s death, informing them 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 said 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.

Their meeting with the Tánaiste came as the family of Tatenda Mukwata have been contacted by the HSE in relation to providing them with a report into the circumstances of her death at University Hospital Kerry in April 2022, after she gave birth to her fourth child.

Ms Mukwata was a resident at the Atlantic Lodge direct provision centre in Kenmare and had been granted permission to stay in Ireland shortly before she died. Last September’s inquest into her death returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure.

The jury found her death was “probably preventable”, noting a misdiagnosis was followed by “a failure to investigate other possible differential misdiagnoses”.

A review was established in her case in September 2022 and the family is still awaiting the findings. In a letter received on Friday, April 26, the family was told the review commissioner, general manager of UHK, Mary Fitzgerald, could not accept the draft report from the review team.

The report is now expected to be available to the family shortly, after contact was made with their legal team on Friday requesting how the family wished to receive it.