A pensioner died after suffering severe burns when his clothes caught fire as he attempted to light a stove, an inquest has heard.
Padraic Murray from Ballyhale, Headford in Co Galway suffered burns to his lower body when a firelighter fell out of the kitchen stove setting fire to his trousers on the morning of January 10th, 2014.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard he died on his 70th birthday.
Mr Murray was sharing a home with his sister-in-law Kathleen Murray who told the inquest that she woke at around 5am when she heard the smoke alarm going off. She went downstairs and Mr Murray was calling her.
“He was sitting in the chair beside the stove. The chair was on fire, his legs were on fire, his feet were burning,” she said.
He was not shouting in pain, she told the court, because both legs were numb from a stroke he had had several years previously.
She put the fire out with a shovel and then called Rita Hughes, Mr Murray’s home help, who came to the house immediately and called for an ambulance. Mr Murray told them both that he was putting the fire on when a firelighter fell out of the stove and set his trousers alight.
He was initially taken to the emergency department at University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG) where he was alert and talking to staff on arrival. An operation was carried out to remove the burnt skin from his legs and feet. He was then transferred by ambulance to the burns unit at St James's Hospital in Dublin.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said that a medical report from UCHG consultant plastic surgeon Deirdre Jones noted following the operation that maintaining Mr Murray's blood pressure "was going to present a major challenge". He was ventilated and intubated for transfer.
Mr Murray remained unstable on arrival at St James’s Hospital and was pronounced dead following a cardiac arrest later that evening. Dr Farrell said that doctors estimated he had suffered burns to 40 per cent of his total body surface area.
The pathologist gave the cause of death as shock due to the burns.
Dr Farrell returned a verdict of accidental death.