As read by solicitor Ms Patricia O'Reilly
The Sheridan family wish to acknowledge the time and effort which has been applied to the preparation of the report into Frances's death by the members of the review committee and also wish to acknowledge the co-operation of the management and staff of Cavan General Hospital. It is a source of great distress to the family to learn from the report that there was a failure on the part of Cavan Hospital to adequately assess and manage Frances's care when she attended at the accident and emergency department of the hospital on the 30th January, 2004, two days prior to her death. It is devastating for the family that the death of their daughter may have been avoided by proper assessment and management.
The report identifies a number of contributing factors which led to this failure and also has made 22 recommendations for reform.
Although the recommendations are suggestive of management that should have been applied to Frances's care, the committee has not specified the actual management that would have been appropriate to Frances, and the family would have welcomed
this.
The family are hopeful that the committee's careful identification of the areas in which failures arose and its recommendations for reform will ensure that such failures cannot occur in future and that no other family will have to endure the unnecessary grief experienced by the Sheridan family. The family urges that all recommendations of the committee's report be fully implemented.
The family have requested clarification of a certain aspect of the report and accordingly must reserve their position pending the reply of the review committee to this request but envisages, at this time, that they will not be requesting an independent report.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask members of the media to respect the privacy of the Sheridan family, who remain devastated by Frances's death.