Our culture of stone-walling - Why is it so hard to get to the truth?

Almost nine years ago, on the night of November 2, 2005, Patrick O’Kelly, a 61-year-old security guard, fell from his bed in the then Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick where he was being treated for a suspected stroke. Within hours of that accident, his family was summoned to his bedside to be told that Mr O’Kelly was dying.

His death, around 48 hours after his fall, led to a long and difficult legal battle which culminated when the HSE settled a High Court case brought by Mr O’Kelly’s daughter Hazel for an undisclosed sum. Ms O’Kelly, like many others, would not have been vindicated had she not shown a stamina and determination beyond anything most of us are capable of. Many of us though, when faced with the inconsistencies, conflicts, and gaps in the evidence offered by the hospital during an investigation into Mr O’Kelly’s death, would have been outraged. An immediate postmortem was not carried out and the coroner was not told of the death for more than two weeks; in medical notes four different times were given for Mr O’Kelly’s fall; his family say that the call bell at his bed was not working though the hospital disputed this; maintenance records for that bell were not available though the corresponding records for other nearby bells were; one nurse said the side rail on Mr O’Kelly’s bed was down but another said it was up. Because of these issues, and despite an assurance from a doctor that Mr O’Kelly’s death was not related to the fall, Ms O’Kelly complained to the hospital but described the subsequent incident report as a “whitewash”.

In her efforts to establish the truth, she sought help from a solicitor who advised her to “walk away from it”. She also contacted politicians and the head of the HSE but was not satisfied with their responses. It was not until she contacted the then ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, whose officials investigated the case, that a satisfactory conclusion was reached. Ms O’Kelly’s ordeal is not by any means unique. We are all too familiar with stories of long, drawn-out and tortuous cases — usually with intimidating costs — taken by those who feel our health system has let them down. These can be particularly harrowing when the issue at hand centres on failings in maternity cases. And of course the cases that get to a courtroom may only be the tip of a very large iceberg.