Doctor weeps as she tells Aoife Johnston inquest UHL was 'not a safe environment'

Dr Leandri Card told the inquest in Limerick she had been severely emotionally impacted by Aoife’s death and that the teenager’s death had led to her quitting the HSE

Dr Leandri Card told the inquest that due to overcrowding and pressure on staff, she and other doctors routinely prescribed medication for ED patients without first seeing or examining them. Picture: Brendan Gleeson

A doctor who treated 16-year-old Aoife Johnston prior to her death at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), wept in the witness box at the teenager’s inquest and told Limerick coroner John McNamara that the emergency department at UHL was “not a safe environment” for patients.

Dr Leandri Card told how she was trying to manage 191 Emergency Department (ED) patients on her own, and that she and ED nurses were “overwhelmed” on the night Aoife presented at the hospital.