A 15-year-old Listowel boy who died after a brain haemorrhage had a vascular malformation in his brain which ruptured suddenly, an inquest into his death in Tralee was told.
It is likely that Richard Connolly, of Feale Drive, Listowel, was born with the malformation of the blood vessels without anybody being aware of it, the inquest heard. The malformation would have grown larger and larger before rupturing and causing the inter-cerebral haemorrhage which led to his death, Dr Margaret Bolster, Assistant State Pathologist said.
The boy's mother, Mary Relihan, was in distress during the reading of her deposition. She told how she and her son had been out on the afternoon of April 13th, 2006. They had called to a house to find out the time of a football match Richard was playing in. Shortly after returning home he complained of a headache and became agitated and began roaring with pain, she said.
She gave him two painkillers. However, he began losing his sight and his speech became incoherent. She and her partner rushed him to Kerry General Hospital, where he was placed on life support. He died on April 18th.
His father, Michael Connolly, identified the body of his son.
"I just want to know would he have been afraid?" Ms Relihan, sobbing, asked Dr Bolster from the body of the court. Dr Bolster assured her he would have felt nothing, "no suffering or pain", once he lost consciousness.
Coroner Helen Lucey extended her deepest sympathy to the family. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.