Woman died hours after being allowed out of psychiatric unit, inquest told

The family of a woman died by suicide after being allowed to leave the psychiatric unit of Letterkenny General Hospital, said she had been failed by the HSE.

After a coroner found that Pauline Devlin (54) from Tooban, Burnfoot, Co Donegal died by suicide due to drowning, her family's solicitor Tom MacSharry confirmed that they have issued High Court proceedings against the HSE for wrongful death. "They feel they too have been failed by the HSE and they don't want this to happen to another family", he said.

The inquest in Sligo heard that less than a week before Ms Devlin’s body was found on rocks at Ards, Creeslough Co Donegal on December 13th 2012, consultant psychiatrist Dr Clifford Haley had directed that she should not be allowed to leave the psychiatric unit, unless she was accompanied by family members.

Three days later a junior doctor who assessed her felt that her condition had significantly improved and she was permitted to go out unaccompanied.

Dr Haley told counsel Keith O’Grady for the family that the deceased was a voluntary patient and was cooperating with a care plan so she could not be detained involuntarily under the Mental Health Act.

Coroner Eamon MacGowan heard that the notes from Dr Haley’s assessment on December 7th had been mis-filed due to clerical error. He said he understood that the doctor who saw her days later would have seen his note.

Mrs Devlin’s husband Patrick told the Coroner that his wife had been depressed for a number of months before her death and had twice been admitted to the psychiatric unit in Letterkenny.

She expressed suicidal thoughts during both hospital stays. Mr Devlin said he had got a call from the hospital telling him that his wife was missing. She had told staff she was going to meet a friend but had failed to return at the appointed time. Gardai were alerted and her body was discovered that evening following a search of the coastline by Donegal Mountain Rescue. Mr Devlin said that his wife’s brother had died by suicide 10 years earlier.

A Cappuchin priest Fr Kevin Shorten told the coroner that Mrs Devlin had called to the friary at Ards on the day she died and had asked him to mind her handbag while she went for a walk. He had first met her 10 days earlier when he was told that a woman was acting oddly on the nearby pier. He gave her a lift to Letterkenny and she told him that she was a burden and that everyone would be better off without her. When she failed to return for her handbag on that day he became worried and called gardaí.

Fr Shorten said he had not initially been concerned because she had seemed happy and had given him “a beautiful smile”. Dr Haley told the inquest that Mrs Devlin’s illness dated back to December 2011 when she experienced an extremely traumatic incident.

She believed she had been sexually abused and she became depressed.She was first admitted as a patient on September 26th 2012 and was discharged two weeks later.

Her second admission was more prolonged “At times suicidal thoughts would come back to haunt her”. Mr O’Grady pointed out that on December 6th Mrs Devlin had been seen by staff testing the exit doors and that she had also inquired about taxis. Dr Haley said she had taken a step away from that behaviour. Simon Mills SC for the HSE said there were no witnesses as to how Mrs Devlin came to be in the water.