A MEATH man was left waiting “for hours” in a hospital emergency unit on several occasions despite being in severe agony, an inquest had heard.
Brendan Somers (47), of Dunboyne, died from decompensated liver failure with cancer of the pancreas at St James’s Hospital on May 5th, 2011. He had presented to the hospital with severe abdominal pain on several occasions in the months prior to his death, but left each time after not being seen.
He wrote a letter to the hospital’s chief executive complaining about the triage system and the fact people were arriving after him and being seen before him even though he was in severe pain. “He said he was hours and hours waiting in pain in AE each time, and that’s why he discharged himself without being seen,” Mr Somers’s sister, Lily Foley, told the inquest. On April 28th, Mr Somers presented to the hospital’s hepatology department for a routine appointment, and cancer of the pancreas was discovered. He was told he had just days to live.
Speaking after the inquest Ms Foley told of the family’s devastation at hearing their brother had only days to live. “They told us on the Tuesday he had cancer and only a few days to live. He died on Thursday morning. If they’d identified the cancer soon we’d have all been able to see him before he died. He might have still died but everyone could have said bye.”
Describing her brother as having “a heart bigger than all of Ireland”, she said he could not walk properly he was in so much pain. She felt his cancer may have been diagnosed earlier had he been seen on one of the occasions in hospital as the pain was being caused by the cancer.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell returned a narrative verdict.