HSE SOCIAL work staff had exhausted all accommodation options when they placed a troubled 17-year-old with a history of self-harm and drug abuse in a city centre hotel on a bank holiday weekend with no supervision, an inquest into the boy’s death heard yesterday.
Christopher O’Driscoll, of no fixed abode, was found in a derelict house at Strowan Villas, off Gardiners Hill in Cork, on May 8th, 2009, having died from pneumonia exacerbated by drug-taking, the inquest at Cork City Coroner’s Court heard.
HSE South social work department team leader, Carmel Walsh, said she booked Mr O’Driscoll into Jurys Inn hotel in Cork on May 1st, 2009, as she felt there was no other option available.
He had been asked to leave a HSE-run hostel and a private BB.
Ms Walsh said the only other option to Jurys Inn on a bank holiday weekend was to detain Mr O’Driscoll against his will under the Child Care Act.
Previous experience had shown he had harmed himself in similar situations when detained involuntarily.
Ms Walsh said she did not tell hotel management at Jurys Inn that Mr O’Driscoll was in the care of the HSE or that he was 17 years old because she feared they would refuse to take him. She paid for the week’s accommodation with a credit card.
She arranged to take him shopping the next day, but when she called to the hotel she found he had been asked to leave during the night following an incident, and she spent the weekend looking for him, without success, as he had no mobile phone.
The inquest heard Mr O’Driscoll was not reported missing to gardaí by the HSE, and the HSE only learned of his whereabouts when they were contacted by gardaí after he was found dead.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said Mr O’Driscoll died of confluent bronchial pneumonia with abscess formations, in association with poly-drug use including heroin, methadone and benzodiazepines such as valium.
The inquest, which returned a verdict of death by misadventure, had heard how Mr O’Driscoll, who first came into contact with social services when just 12, had a history of drug abuse and self-harm and had been placed in special support units by the HSE three times.
HSE South social worker Steve Maricle said Mr O’Driscoll had begun abusing cannabis when aged 12, and later became addicted to prescription medicines in about 2008. Mr O’Driscoll had confirmed to him in April 2009 that he was abusing heroin.
Mr Maricle told how he was called to the Mercy University Hospital on April 10th, 2009, after Mr O’Driscoll was admitted in an unconscious state after snorting two bags of heroin while in custody in the Bridewell Garda station for a public order offence.
He was found to have severe pneumonia and iron deficiency, but after receiving antibiotics and three blood transfusions he discharged himself against medical advice and later spent a week in the HSE-run Pathways Hostel for boys aged 14-17, Mr Maricle said.
Mr O’Driscoll had to leave Pathways on April 22nd when he became agitated and started throwing himself in front of traffic and put himself and others at risk.After being arrested by gardaí, he agreed to be admitted to St Michael’s Psychiatric Unit at MUH.
He discharged himself a day later and, after spending a week in a BB, ended up in court on May 1st, where Ms Walsh noted he was in poor health and suggested that he agree to go to St Patrick’s Institution. He refused and was released on bail.