A jury returned a unanimous verdict of accidental death at an inquest in Castlebar, Co Mayo, yesterday into the death of a 79-year-old widow who was claimed by her family to have been wrongly diagnosed as having bruised her leg last April when the limb was in fact broken.
Bridget Higgins, Cloghans, Ballina, fell at her home on April 13th and hurt her leg. Her daughter and carer, Ann Higgins, made an urgent call to Westdoc, which provides out-of-hours GP services in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, and was advised by the nurse on duty to put an ice pack on the affected area and give her mother some painkillers.
Both Ms Higgins and her brother, Patrick, told yesterday's inquest, which was conducted by coroner for south Mayo John O'Dwyer, that although an immediate visit was requested, it took more than three hours for the doctor to arrive.
When the doctor, Dr Mohamed Nazir, did arrive he concluded it was only a bruise, according to the dead woman's children, and the next day Ms Higgins, when brought to Mayo General Hospital for an X-ray, was found to have a broken leg and she had to undergo surgery.
Ms Higgins died in the hospital's intensive care unit at approximately 2pm on April 17th, having failed to regain consciousness following surgery.