HSE asked to review Ennis bypass death

THE HSE has been asked to investigate the circumstances around the death of a man who suffered a cardiac arrest in an ambulance after bypassing the closed A&E unit at Ennis General Hospital early yesterday.

Dan McDonnell (59), Kilkee, Co Clare, a father of three, suffered a cardiac arrest in an ambulance minutes away from the AE at Limerick Regional Hospital. Mr McDonnell reached the A&E at 6.10am and was declared dead at 6.32am.

Yesterday, his wife, Marie, said his life “might have been saved if the A&E unit at Ennis was open at the time”. Ms McDonnell paid tribute to the emergency personnel and said that her husband, a retired supervisor with Clare County Council, had a heart condition.

Clare mayor Madeleine Taylor Quinn (FG) said yesterday that Mr McDonnell was “the first victim of the closure of 24-hour A&E services at Ennis General”.

Ms Taylor Quinn called on the HSE “to investigate the full circumstances around Mr McDonnell’s death and the impact the A&E closure specifically had on this case”.

Earlier this month the HSE ended the 24-hour A&E at Ennis and Nenagh general hospitals. The units are now closed from 8pm- 8am each day with services centralised at Limerick Regional Hospital.

The closure at Ennis forced the emergency services to transfer Mr McDonnell the 59 miles to Limerick from Kilkee instead of the 34 miles to Ennis General.

A HSE spokeswoman said the service received a call from Mr McDonnell’s home at 4.20am yesterday, where he was complaining of breathlessness. She said the Kilrush ambulance service took Mr McDonnell to Knockalough Cross five miles from the village of Lissycasey, where he was transferred to an advance response car.

The spokeswoman said HSE personnel worked on Mr McDonnell en route to Limerick and that the advance paramedics provided him with the same treatment he would have received at Ennis A&E.