Hospital complaint: An investigation is under way into the treatment of an elderly woman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda whose family claim she was left for some time with her head lodged between two bars at the side of her bed, The Irish Times has learned.
Margaret McMahon (91) from Monaghan died six days after being transferred to a nursing home from the Drogheda hospital. Her family claim she was neglected "because she was a woman in a room on her own and dying and staff had other priorities". They say she needed help to eat but was given help only if one particular member of staff was on duty, and she was transferred to the nursing home in an unfit condition.
Ms McMahon was being treated at the hospital for two broken hips and complications arising from contracting MRSA.
Her son, Peader McMahon, visited her at the hospital 10 days before her death and found her slumped and unable to move, with her head lodged between two rails of the bed cage at the side of her bed.
"While I was outside her door putting on the gown and gloves I heard her continually cry out my name and beg me to come and help her," he said. "She did not know how long she was there but, judging from the two indents on the side of her skull, it was quite some time."
The family also found plates of cold food left out of reach of her bed and medication, which should have been administered to her in the morning, left with the food tray. When the family asked for extra blankets for their mother, who was covered with a duvet cover containing a plastic sheet, they were given two empty duvet covers and told that there was no one available to collect blankets from the stores.
The family claim they were also told she was not fit to be transferred to the nursing home but after they complained about conditions at the hospital, she was moved.
Nursing home staff discovered untreated sores on Ms McMahon and she was very well cared for there, the family said, but she died six days later.
Mr McMahon, who is also chairman of the Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance, said that if his mother had been treated in Monaghan hospital close to home and with the level of care that was provided at the nursing home, her final weeks would have been easier for her.
Following her death, the family lodged an official complaint with management at the hospital and also wrote to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the chief executive officer of the Health Service Executive.
"Something needs to be done so that this doesn't happen again to any patient, young or old," Mr McMahon said. "We felt it was our duty to make an issue of this so that other patients might not suffer the lack of care our mother suffered."
A spokeswoman for the HSE said it could not comment on individual cases but confirmed that the family's complaint is being investigated.
