The Dublin city coroner recorded an open verdict yesterday on the death of a man at a Dublin psychiatric hospital 14 years ago.
Nicholas Murphy (38), Mulvey Park, Dundrum, died at Vergemount Psychiatric Unit in Clonskeagh, Dublin, on December 7th, 1992. Moments before his death, Mr Murphy had been handcuffed by gardaí as he had became violent towards staff and then died minutes later after 9am from respiratory failure.
He was being treated for schizophrenia and alcohol detoxification at the psychiatric hospital and had been administered medication to try and sedate him. Evidence heard before the inquest yesterday from then staff nurse, Pádraig O'Reilly, contrasted with that of two medical doctors at Vergemount, other nursing staff at the hospital and Garda evidence on Mr Murphy's death.
Mr O'Reilly told the court that gardaí only removed the handcuffs when Mr Murphy had "gone blue in the face". Three Garda witnesses told the court in November that they had left the hospital before Mr Murphy showed signs of respiratory distress.
Dr Máiréad McGovern was the doctor on call the night before Mr Murphy died. As was standard, nursing staff called her when Mr Murphy became abusive and she instructed what sedative medication to administer.
Mr O'Reilly described as "kamikaze practice" when doctors prescribed drugs without seeing the patient and then filled out a form later indicating what drugs had been administered. Mr O'Reilly also said that Frieda O'Connell, then consultant psychiatrist at the hospital, was present when Mr Murphy was handcuffed and instructed a nurse to administer a sedative injection. This was strongly denied by Ms O'Connell, who said she arrived to the hospital after Mr Murphy had been given an injection.
A postmortem report found that Mr Murphy had therapeutic levels of prescribed drugs in his system that did not cause his death.
Dr Sheila England carried out the autopsy and told the court it was possible that an unforeseen reaction to a combination of drugs could have occurred in his system, but this was "speculation."
In 2002, Mr O'Reilly made a statement to gardaí regarding the circumstances of Mr Murphy's death. An inquiry was launched and the inquest was opened as a result.
Outside court, Daniel Murphy said the inquest "didn't get to the truth" and he was confused by the conflicting evidence in relation to his brother's death.