A MAN died from complications of a bone fracture sustained in an altercation with another resident in a nursing home where he lived, an inquest has heard.
Patrick Declan Kinsella (71), Annabeg Nursing Home, Meadow Court, Ballybrack, Co Dublin, suffered a fracture of his right shin bone and calf bone in a fight with a 96-year-old man at the nursing home on August 24th, 2010.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard staff nurse Jeanette Suarez raised the alarm and called the emergency services at about 10pm when she found Mr Kinsella, who used a wheelchair, lying on the ground floor of the nursing home, beside the nurses’ station.
He was complaining of pain in his right leg. Another resident, who had dementia, was standing behind the wheelchair and both men were bleeding from the head.
Mr Kinsella told a paramedic he had been assaulted. The two residents were taken to St Vincent’s hospital in separate ambulances for treatment.
Mr Kinsella told his daughter Carol Cunnie that the other man had “tipped” him out of his wheelchair and he had fallen on to the ground and hit his head.
Giving evidence at the inquest Ms Cunnie said her father told her the older man had then picked up a “grabber”, which Mr Kinsella had for picking up things, and began “beating him on the face” with it. Ms Cunnie recalled her father said the “grabber” broke and that he then hit the other man with it.
The incident occurred after the other man told Mr Kinsella to turn off the lights and he replied he could not because he was in a wheelchair, Mr Kinsella told his daughter.
Mr Kinsella’s fractured bones were placed in a cast and he was discharged back to the nursing home on August 25th, but was readmitted to hospital the following day after his condition deteriorated. He died on August 28th.
After hearing details of the postmortem, Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the Kinsella family he was satisfied the cause of death was fat embolus as a result of a fracture to the right leg.
“Clearly this was an altercation which resulted in a fracture, which resulted in a fat embolus,” said Dr Farrell. “I’m sorry to hear the altercation resulted in his death,” he said.
“The injuries would not normally be expected to cause death, but sometimes we have a situation where fat embolus occurs and that’s what happened.”
A fat embolus is a recognised complication of a fracture, where fat globules travel to the heart and lungs causing breathing problems, cardiac failure and death.
Dr Farrell recorded a narrative verdict, a summary of the facts of the case.
Speaking from the body of the court, the deceased man’s wife, Patricia Kinsella, told the coroner that the family did not blame anybody for her husband’s death.
She said the nursing home staff had been “fantastic”. “My husband was well looked after. He had the run of the place. He had his meals whenever he wanted. He was brought to the first match in the Aviva [stadium] and to a Christy Moore concert. We don’t want to blame these people,” she said.
The inquest was told Mr Kinsella, from Ballybrack, Co Dublin, had had an above-knee amputation of his left leg in 2005 due to poor circulation.
He had had problems with infection and spent two years in hospital following the surgery.
There was a “marked improvement in his physical and mental state” following his admission to Annabeg nursing home, said Ms Cunnie, who described his care there as “excellent”.
The inquest heard the 96-year- old man who had the altercation with Mr Kinsella had been admitted to the nursing home after he was burgled twice at home.
He was assaulted by the burglars on one of those occasions. He was “security conscious” and on occasion would check to make sure doors were locked, nursing home proprietor Brendan O’Connell told the inquest.
He said the man had no recollection of the incident and was unable to make a statement due to dementia.