Man refused to call ambulance for wife who was having heart attacks, court told

A man refused a request from his wife to call an ambulance while she was suffering what turned out to be two minor heart attacks, the Family Law Court has heard.

The woman alleged at a court sitting in Ennis on Tuesday that she was suffering from chest pains at home when she sought assistance from her husband of 40 years.

The two had previously given undertakings in court not to enter each other’s bedrooms and bathrooms at their home.

The man says he and his wife have had nothing in common for the past 12 years. Colum Doherty, solicitor for the man, said “relationships have broken down and that matter can’t be resolved through domestic violence legislation”.

Pamela Clancy, solicitor for the woman, said her client is subjected to ongoing name calling by her husband and that the two minor heart attacks suffered by the woman were due to the stress of the situation.

In her application for a Protection Order against her husband, the woman said that after she asked him to call the ambulance, he “told me to f off”.

Chest pains

She told Judge Mary Larkin that she “had to call the ambulance myself”. The chest pains were later diagnosed as two minor heart attacks at the hospital.

“He drinks heavily, shouts at me and calls me nasty names,” the woman told the judge. “He knows all my movements and where I have been. I am afraid of him.”

Judge Larkin granted the woman the protection order and also granted the husband a protection order after he alleged that his wife hit him with a frying pan.

He said of his wife: “She told lies about me. She said I was abusive and roaring and shouting at her and that I was drinking. She is constantly roaring and shouting at me.”

Addressing both parties, Judge Larkin said: “You are adults and I don’t see ye behaving like adults at the moment. You would want to learn how to live together and accommodate each other.”

The woman does not drive and revealed that her husband passed her in a car and left her at the roadside ahead of a previous court appearance by the two, forcing her to wait for a bus.

Judge Larkin adjourned the case to September.