A woman whose husband died of a heart attack 12 days after it was claimed he presented to his GP complaining of chest pain has settled her High Court action over his death on confidential terms.
Mr Justice Kevin Cross approved the settlement on Tuesday and offered his sympathy to Charlotte Morshed and her six children on the death of Mahmud Morshed, who had been working as a ship’s captain.
Ms Morshed , of The Gulley, Bandon, Co Cork, had sued Edwin J. Cantillon, a GP practising out of Main Street, Carrigaline and Douglas West over the death of her husband 11 years ago.
It was claimed that on May 1st, 2008, Mr Morshed, accompanied by his wife, attended the doctor complaining of chest and upper abdominal pain. Mr Cantillon, it was claimed, felt the symptoms could be related to a gastrointestinal problem or a gall bladder problem and gave Mr Morshed tablets for spasm.
Twelve days later, Mr Morshed who was sweating and complaining of severe right upper quadrant pain, was brought to a hospital emergency department by ambulance and died shortly after.
A postmortem concluded that the causes of death were congestive cardiac failure and heart attack.
It was claimed by the Morshed side there was failure to properly investigate and diagnose Mr Morshed’s symptoms when he attended with the GP on May 1st, 2008. It was further claimed there was failure to refer Mr Morshed to a specialist for further investigation of his symptoms and for specialist examination for heart problems despite allegedly documenting the presence of chest pain on May 1st 2008 and despite Mr Morshed’s family history of heart disease.
The claims were denied and the GP side contended, when Mr Morshed attended, his blood pressure was within the normal range. It was also pleaded that Mr Morshed had no further complaints or symptoms until May 13th, 2008.