AN ELDERLY couple who were life-long partners and in good health, died within hours of each other in separate Cork hospitals, an inquest heard yesterday.
Catherine “Cissie” Casey and her husband Michael, an ex-county councillor and chairman of Fermoy Town Council, suffered a rapid deterioration in health in the two weeks leading up to their respective deaths on the same day, March 29th, 2009.
The couple, from Lynch’s Terrace, Fermoy, were life-long partners who ‘‘did everything together,’’ Cork City Coroner’s court heard yesterday.
They suffered mobility problems. Mrs Casey had been using a Zimmer Frame to move around their home for two years before her death while Mr Casey was confined to a bed placed in the living room of the house.
Mrs Casey (79) was admitted to Mercy University Hospital on March 17th, 2009, as her daughters had trouble waking her that morning and called an ambulance. The following day, Mr Casey (85) was admitted to Mallow General Hospital.
Within days, husband and wife had died within hours of each other.
The inquest into Mrs Casey’s death heard that, in hospital, tests showed that she had unusually high levels of paracetamol in her bloodstream, medication she had been told to take for pain management.
Her son, Jim Casey, described how she had been suffering from osteoporosis, which caused her frame to shrink from just over 5ft to 4ft 3in.
“She was in pain all the time, it got worse over the past two years of her life. My sisters found it hard to wake her that morning so an ambulance was called. Dad was completely immobile at that time,” he said.
Mrs Casey had paracetamol levels of 2.7 in her system and was managed in hospital as ‘‘someone who had taken too much paracetamol,’’ according to the coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane.
However, her condition deteriorated rapidly over the next number of days and she was presenting signs of organ failure 10 days after admittance.
She also developed pneumonia in one of her lungs and suffered a stroke while in hospital.
Mr Casey, who had been made aware of his wife’s grave condition, died at 2pm on March 29th. He was followed just hours later by his wife Catherine, who was pronounced dead at Mercy hospital before midnight.
Family members present said each was in good health prior to the rapid decline that led up to their deaths.
“It’s not unheard of that this happens to life-long partners. It’s a very difficult time, to lose both parents on the same day. But maybe neither would have liked to live on without the other,” Dr Cullinane said.
An open verdict was recorded in the case of Mrs Casey’s death, as it was not clear whether she was aware of the dangers associated with ingesting paracetemol tablets.