THE Director of Public Prosecutions is to be asked to look again at the circumstances in which a man died in a Co Laois nursing home in 1995, after an inquest found his death was accelerated by drugs.
Mr Frank Burke (86), of Killamuck, Abbeyleix was gravely ill before he died at the Aisling Nursing Home in Portlaoise on August 26th, 1995.
Yesterday, the inquest jury of five men and one woman decided that his death was a result of cancer and heart disease but was accelerated by a combination of three drugs, one of them unprescribed and one found at toxic levels in the dead man's body.
The coroner, Mr Eugene O'Connor, had earlier advised the jurors that while it was not their function to blame or exonerate anyone, the "accelerated" verdict - one of three forms of wording suggested to the jury - carried the implication that "somebody did something wrong.
Gardai said they would be forwarding details of the inquest to the DPP. A file on the case was submitted previously, but new evidence emerged during the four day hearing.
The former owner of the home, Mrs Philomena Gorman, said she was pleased with the verdict and would co operate with further investigations. Her counsel, Mr John Phelan, said that the presence of the drugs in the dead man's body could not be denied, but the presence of the unprescribed painkiller, pethidine remained a "huge mystery."
During yesterday's evidence, a witness who had testified against Mrs Gorman broke down after she was accused of embezzlement in a previous nursing job.
Counsel for Mrs Gorman, Mr John Phelan, asked former nursing home employee, Ms Kathleen Sheil, if she considered herself a paragon of credibility. Ms Sheil said she had never said that.
Further questioned, she confirmed that her employment at St Vincent's Hospital, Mountmellick, was terminated in 1985.
She said that after her employment was terminated she took care of her ageing mother. She developed a drink problem but eventually sought help for it. Since February 1989 she had not had a drink.
Mr Phelan, pointed out that during the hearing on Wednesday it had been suggested that his client tried to kill Mr Burke and that Ms Sheil's evidence could be taken against his client.
"Were you convicted of embezzling money from the Midland Health Board?" he asked. A visibly upset Nurse Sheil replied: "I don't have to answer that". Mr Phelan then said that he would produce the order of the District Court which proved she had been so convicted.
Mr Phelan argued that if the evidence of Nurse Sheil and the two other former employees was held as being truthful then the evidence of Mrs Gorman could not be true.
Mr Tom O'Connell, counsel for the Burke family, intervened. He said that the principal allegations against Mrs Gorman were made by Ms Alice Walsh.
The jury foreman asked Ms Sheil if it would be correct to say that the money she had been accused of embezzling was not the money of the Midland Health Board. "Yes," she replied.
Mr Phelan claimed Nurse Sheil had been involved in a conspiracy with the other two employees, Mrs Alice Walsh and Ms Maureen Carroll, to get rid of Mrs Gorman in order to take over the nursing home.
The hearing recalled evidence given on Wednesday by Dr Patricia Callan, director of Community Care, Midland Health Board, that Ms Sheil applied to be considered; a fit person to run the Aisling Nursing Home and subsequently, as far as Dr Callan knew, withdrew her application. The Health Board made inquiries with An Bord Altranais and it confirmed that she was not registered from 1985 to 1995. As a result she was not entitled to operate as a nurse.
This evidence was contradicted yesterday by Ms Sheil. She told Mr Phelan that she did not mislead Mrs Gorman about her registration.
After taking up employment with the Aisling Nursing Home she submitted a retention fee of £40 to An Bord Altranais, which in turn issued her with documentation.
Mrs Gorman again denied evidence that she administered a large dose of the drug Sparine to Mr Burke at 7.30 a.m. on Thursday, August 24th.
She further denied administering medication to Mr Burke on Friday, August 25th. She reiterated that she did not bring Sparine into the room of Mr Burke. She removed the two empty bottles from his room that Friday and placed them in the bin.
There was also conflict over the interpretation of the testimony offered by Dr Margaret Ann Bolster, assistant State Pathologist. While there was agreement between counsel for the Burke family, the Midland Health Board solicitor and Supt Noel McCarthy that Dr Bolster had said that the combination of drugs had accelerated the elderly man's death, notes taken by Ms Ursula McSweeney, representing the nursing home owner, Mrs Gorman, indicated that Dr Bolster qualified the word.
She recorded that Dr Bolster said: "Accelerated possibly".