A coroner yesterday spoke of his "admiration" for the family of a mother and son who died in a house fire who, in the middle of their "appalling tragedy", decided to donate their organs so that others would benefit.
Louth county coroner Ronan Maguire yesterday opened the inquests into the deaths of Marian Moran (25) and her son Brandyn (3½) who were on life support before they died nearly a week after the blaze engulfed their Dundalk home.
The fire broke out on April 2nd last year in their house in Cox's Demesne. Ms Moran never regained consciousness. She was on life support in Louth County Hospital in Dundalk until her death five days later.Brandyn had been transferred to Crumlin Children's Hospital in Dublin but he too had been too badly injured and died the following day.
Despite their unimaginable grief, her family had no hesitation in deciding to let Ms Moran's organs help others. "It is what she would have wanted, she was that type of person," her father, Derek, said at the time. "She would literally give you her heart."
Pathologist Dr John Ryan told the coroner's court that when Ms Moran was brought into A&E at the Louth hospital, her heart had stopped. Despite extensive resuscitation efforts she did not recover and the postmortem revealed she had a "very high" carboxy-haemoglobin, an indication of smoke inhalation.
Mr Maguire said it was "an appalling tragedy to lose both your daughter and grandson and it is perfectly obvious to us that it is still fresh in your mind". He praised the family for making the organ donation. "I have admiration for the family that in a time of need, you consented to organ donation so that somebody could benefit out of this appalling tragedy. I don't have the words to deal with the extent of my admiration for you."
The court was told that Brandyn had also died as a result of smoke inhalation and there had been intensive efforts to resuscitate him in Crumlin hospital. However brain stem tests showed he was dead, Dr Ryan said, and he died on April 7th, a day after his mother.
The coroner adjourned the inquests and said that on the next date, the family would be able to ask any questions they wanted about the cause of the fire. He asked gardaí to keep the family apprised of the investigation.
A family member then thanked the Garda, the fire brigade and staff at both hospitals.