A PHYSICALLY and mentally disabled woman sustained second degree burns to both her feet and lower legs due to immersion in hot water while she was being bathed by a care assistant at home, an inquest has heard.
Sharon Carney (34), Glendale Estate, Leixlip, Co Kildare, suffered 10 per cent burns to her feet and the lower third of both legs on August 16th, 2008, while she was being bathed by her personal assistant, Maria Yourell, an employee of the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA).
Ms Yourell, who died in a road traffic incident in April 2009, had been looking after Ms Carney for about a month at the time.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard Ms Carney’s father Patrick carried her to the bathroom on the morning of August 16th and placed her in a special electrically operated chair so she could be bathed by her carer. He went downstairs, and about three minutes later heard his daughter in distress.He told the inquest he lifted Sharon off the chair and that her feet were blistered and burned, and the skin was coming off.
In a statement by Ms Yourell before her death, which was read out in court, she said she had checked the water, and to her the “temperature was OK”. She said Ms Carney started to scream when they put her into the chair, but that she always screamed when getting into the bath, and that she hated water, and bathing.
Ms Carney, who had a problem swallowing related to her disability, was taken to hospital. She became less responsive on August 23rd and suffered a cardio-respiratory arrest. A postmortem found she died of respiratory failure due to aspiration pneumonia.
IWA solicitor Anne Nagle said carers were trained before caring for someone in the home.
Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Dr Brian Farrell said: “The burns started a chain of events which led to Sharon’s death due to aspiration pneumonia.”