Toddler’s fentanyl death ‘was an accident waiting to happen’

Christopher McDonagh's mother Leanne Marshall with Jack Clarke. Picture: Liz Dunphy

A toddler whose "hearty laugh lit up the whole place with joy" died of fentanyl poisoning after accidentally ingesting or absorbing the drug through his terminally ill uncle’s transdermal patch.

Neither HSE carers nor the patient or the child’s family had been warned that the patch contained fentanyl in what was described as a "massive system failure".