Hospital apologises for death of woman discharged without medical review

The partner of a woman who died a day after being discharged from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth hopes "lessons can be learned".

Coroner Ronan Maguire heard that Maura McCourt (68), from Glenwood, Dundalk, was not reviewed by a medical team before being sent home on February 28th, 2014.

She had been treated for a chest infection but tests for sepsis had also begun, the inquest heard.

It also emerged that the first the hospital knew of her death, was when her partner Laurence Collins made a written complaint to them six months later.

The hospital apologised at the inquest and said “we believe Maura should not have been discharged and we apologise sincerely”.

The inquest heard she felt unwell and had breathing problems on February 26th, 2014, and Mr Collins drove her to the emergency department .

They were told she had a bad chest infection and she was admitted. The inquest also heard it had been planned to discharge her after one night but she felt unwell and nauseous and a doctor had decided she should stay for the weekend.

However, the next day she was discharged and a nurse told them the only option was to return to the emergency room.

Mr Collins said Ms McCourt could not face that and he brought her home.

She had a reasonable night at home but at 7pm the next day she began frothing at the mouth and Mr Collins rang an ambulance. Despite their efforts she died a short time later.

A postmortem found Ms McCourt died from acute cardio-respiratory failure secondary to bronchial pneumonia.

Roger Murray, solicitor for Mr Collins, told the coroner that it was agreed between the parties that she had been discharged without a review by the medical team.

The discharge was completed by members of the surgical team but Simon Mills, for the Health Service Executive, said that it was clear that if the doctor in question had known there was no medical review, he would not have discharged her.

As a result of a review of Ms McCourt’s care the HSE is implementing six recommendations relating to following up on diagnostic tests, performing observations on patients as clinically needed and ensuring patients are fully assessed before being discharged.

The coroner returned a narrative verdict.

Speaking afterwards Mr Collins who had earlier told the coroner that Maura was the love of his life said: “I am happy with the verdict and I hope lessons can be learned by it.”