Limerick family sues over death of daughter hours after leaving hospital

It is claimed Eve Cleary was allegedly allowed to develop a deep vein thrombosis and that an opportunity had been allegedly missed to put her on an anticoagulant on admission

Eve Cleary's parents Barry Cleary and Melanie Sheehan Cleary outside the Four Courts. Picture: Collins Courts

A woman has told how she watched as her husband tried to resuscitate their 21-year-old daughter after she collapsed at home just hours after being discharged from University Hospital Limerick.

“He kept saying 'stay with me, look at me',” Melanie Sheehan Cleary told the High Court judge hearing her family’s action against the HSE over the death of her eldest child, Eve, five years ago.

Eve Cleary (21), from Corbally, Limerick, died in the early hours of July 21, 2019, two days after she fell and hurt her leg and went to the A&E department of the Limerick Hospital and just hours after she had been discharged and told to go home and rest.

Eve’s mother told the judge after the ambulance arrived she remembered her daughter pulled down her oxygen mask and spoke to her.

“She said 'Mam, I am so sorry' and she never got to finish it,” she told Ms Justice Emily Egan.

Eve Cleary, 21, died in 2019 from a blood clot, just four hours after being discharged from UHL, where she had spent 17 hours on a trolley after a fall in Limerick city centre.

Eve’s dad, Barry Cleary along with his wife Melanie their daughters Kate, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Emma, and son Sean have sued the HSE over her death and also for mental distress.

Their counsel Dr John O’Mahony SC with Doireann O’Mahony BL opening the case at the Four Courts, said it was “a profound and tragic case that would bring tears to a stone". 

In evidence, Mrs Cleary said when her daughter went to the Limerick Hospital A&E after falling and hurting her leg on July 19, 2019, she was on a trolley in the corridor where there was a stench of urine.

She said the smell "took my breath away".

Eve, she said, used her hoodie as a blanket and Mrs Cleary put a jumper under her head.

“She said don’t leave me on my own and said her leg was searing like a poker,” she told the judge.

She said her daughter's lower limb was "red and angry from her ankle up to her knee and there was a quite vicious swelling".

"It reminded me of a Christmas ham her leg was bulbous,” she told the judge.

At one stage she said she put her hand on her daughter's leg and Eve told her not to do it because it was too painful.

She later got a bed and a scan and X-ray were clear. She was discharged from the hospital at 8.30pm on July 20 but collapsed at home over three hours later.

She was brought back to hospital by ambulance after she went into cardiac arrest and died before 2am on July 21, 2019.

It is claimed that Eve was allegedly allowed to develop a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and that an opportunity had been missed at the hospital to put her on the anticoagulant Heparin on admission.

The HSE accepts a formal risk assessment in relation to blood clots was not done but has denied all other claims.

The HSE, the court heard, does not accept the failure to carry out the risk assessment was a breach of duty as it was in accordance with the guidelines at the time.

It says the treatment and management of Eve Cleary was reasonable and appropriate.

The case continues.