A man died at a Dublin hospital after he choked on a wad of tissue paper which was discovered lodged at the back of his throat, an inquest heard yesterday.
Michael Bowler, a long-stay patient at St Brendan's hospital, Grangegorman, who suffered from schizo-affective disorder, was admitted to the Mater hospital on April 1st suffering from chronic obstructive airway disease, also known as emphysema.
He died at the hospital five days later, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard.
Nursing and medical staff at the hospital attributed a dramatic deterioration in Mr Bowler's breathing on the morning of his death to his terminal condition, and he was treated appropriately with medication and oxygen.After he had died, a wad of tissue paper was discovered lodged at the back of Mr Bowler's throat.
A postmortem by Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis found that Mr Bowler died as a result of choking on tissue paper.
Staff nurse at the Mater hospital, Sharon O'Connor told the court that on the morning of April 6th, Mr Bowler vomited after she gave him his medication at 10am and after cleaning him, she gave him tissue paper to wipe his face.
When she returned from a break at 10.50am, Ms O'Connor noticed that Mr Bowler's condition had deteriorated.
Despite medical intervention, he was pronounced dead at 12.50pm at the Mater hospital.
The court heard that Mr Bowler was not for full resuscitation in the event of a cardiac emergency and he was not intubated. Had he been intubated, the paper would have been discovered, clinical nurse manager, Paula Doolan told the court.
Ms O'Connor had also checked Mr Bowler's mouth for a possible obstruction when his condition deteriorated, but she could not see anything there at the time.
Mr Bowler's daughter, Mary asked how the tissue got into her father's mouth when he was under constant supervision.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell said there was no evidence to suggest that Mr Bowler deliberately wanted to harm himself.
"It seems he deteriorated after possibly inhaling the tissue into the back of his throat. It would look as if it got struck in his throat.
" I can't answer how it got in there. I guess he might have been wiping his mouth and he swallowed it," said Dr Farrell.
A jury recorded a majority verdict of death by misadventure.