A man who died after suffering “severe” burns from a candle at his home may have “underestimated” the severity of his injuries due to a loss of sensation in his legs, an inquest heard.
Desmond Cowman (84), a retired history teacher and a father of three, died about two weeks after his son discovered the burn injuries during a routine visit in December 2024.
Cowman, who had been living independently at his home in Boatstrand, Co Waterford, was injured when his pyjama bottoms caught fire as he slept, Dublin District Coroner’s Court heard on Monday.
His son, Turlough Cowman, discovered the injuries on December 7th during a routine weekly visit, telling coroner Dr Clare Keane he saw pieces of “burnt cloth” on arrival.
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These were “pieces of his pyjamas”, he said, believing it had been 12 or 13 hours since the incident.
Turlough said his father told him he believed he had “fallen asleep” while the candle was alight on the nearby coffee table.
Describing a “nasty burn” above his father’s waistband, alongside further significant burns on his legs, he said: “He seemed to think it was less than it was.”
He said his father had “very little sensation in his legs” and “may have underestimated the damage”.
Turlough said his father was “quite lucid” at the time and it was not unusual for him to have candles alight in the house.
Desmond was taken to Waterford University Hospital that day. Although his vital signs were stable at the time, he had a temperature of 35.9 degrees, which the coroner noted was “not normal” and a sign of hypothermia due to the burns. He was transferred to the national burns unit at St James’s Hospital, Dublin.
His burn covered 20 per cent of his total body surface area, mainly affecting his left leg, according to a report from Prof Odhran Shelley, a consultant plastic surgeon at St James’s.
Although Desmond remained stable after having surgery on his lower limbs, he had previous “significant diabetic foot disease” and poor perfusion to the left foot, which was “now more badly injured”, Shelley said.
His burn injury was ultimately deemed “non-survivable” before his death on December 20th.
A postmortem gave pneumonia and terminal heart failure due to severe burn injury as his causes of death.
The coroner said Desmond was “cognitively well” at the time of the incident and she recorded a verdict of accidental death, saying it “could not have been predicted”.
Noting a delay in presentation to the emergency department, Keane said it was evident that Desmond’s medical conditions, including vascular disease and his history of diabetes, would have “contributed to his lack of sensation”.
“There were several reasons as to why he may not have reacted,” she said.
