An elderly woman, who sustained a serious head injury when she collapsed at a bus stop and died later of her injuries, was not given medical attention at St James's Hospital in Dublin until her family arrived over two hours later, an inquest has heard.
Elizabeth Cunneen (81), Willowbank Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin, died of a brain haemorrhage as a result of a skull fracture the day after she was admitted to hospital on January 6th last year.
Mrs Cunneen was on warfarin, the anti-clotting drug that thins the blood. Patients taking warfarin are at additional risk of bleeding profusely if cut and thus require medical monitoring.
Mary Cunneen told Dublin City Coroner's Court yesterday that her mother was left on a trolley outside a nurses' station with a bandage around her head, her warfarin book in her hand and given no medical attention until she approached staff upon her arrival.
Mary and her husband, David McCormick, told the court they received a phone message from the hospital saying Mrs Cunneen had been admitted following her collapse, but that "she was okay and she was conscious", Mr McCormick said.
Speaking outside court, Ms Cunneen said that none of the medical staff seemed to be paying her mother any attention when she arrived. "Her situation was that because of the warfarin, she bled more. She had been told for years that she must carry her warfarin book everywhere because if she had a fall it was important that medical staff would know about it. But they didn't seem to do anything about it. She was just sitting on a trolley with her warfarin book in her hand. She kept saying 'Oh, my head' and trying to pull the bandage off."
Deputy Dublin city coroner Maria Colbert yesterday recorded a verdict of accidental death and said there was no mention that Mrs Cunneen was a warfarin patient from the hospital's medical reports.
The coroner said she was surprised that Mrs Cunneen was not given more attention for her severe head injury considering she was on warfarin, and "there couldn't have been any doubt she wasn't well".