The Health Service Executive confirmed yesterday it would carry out a review of all factors involved in the death of a mother of five from Co Meath.
Margaret Courtney (37) died at her home in Laytown last week of a rare form of pneumonia. She had visited her GP last Monday week and was told she had bad flu, was given painkillers and advised to spend a few days in bed.
By Wednesday of that week she was not improving and her husband, Thomas Courtney, contacted the North East Doctor on Call (Nedoc) service around 8.30pm, which provides out-of-hours GP cover for the region. He outlined his wife's symptoms and was advised again she had bad flu, that the clinic was overrun with patients and there was no point in taking her in. However he was told if she got worse during the night he should contact the service again.
They went to bed and he heard his wife going to the bathroom and getting a drink of water during the night. At about 7am she called him to help her to the bathroom. He went to help her out of the bed and noticed a purple bruise on her stomach. He rang the doctor-on-call service again. The person at the end of the line said the details would be passed on to his wife's own GP before 9am.
Mr Courtney was concerned so he telephoned his wife's GP on his mobile at around 7.30am. The GP said he would organise an ambulance. His wife was dead before it arrived.
Mr Courtney said his GP told him an autopsy found his wife had died from a rare form of pneumonia that few people survive. He said the GP told him "there wasn't a lot they could do".
Mr Courtney, whose children range in age from eight to 18 years, said he did not know what to think, "but I think it's a disgrace no one came out to her".
He said his wife had been fine last Sunday week and had been out for a meal that day. Last night he said the health service and Minister for Health Mary Harney had a lot to answer for.
In a statement, the HSE said it would carry out a review "of all factors" involved in Mrs Courtney's death. "The scope of this review shall cover the period of her first contact with her GP in relation to this episode of care to her death on the 2nd February 2006," it said.
"The review shall be carried out in accordance with the incident review policy. The membership of the review group is currently being finalised. The review is to be carried out as soon as practicable and will report to the assistant national director primary community continuing care, HSE," it added.
Mrs Courtney was buried last Saturday.
Deaths from flu and pneumonia are rare. Dr Lelia Thornton, a public-health specialist with the national Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said influenza levels remained low in the Republic. "We are not aware of anything unusual at the moment," she added.
Latest figures show that to date this season, the National Virus Reference Laboratory has detected just 10 positive influenza specimens. The Nedoc service is a partnership between the HSE North Eastern Area and approximately 150 GPs.