Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell yesterday recorded verdicts of medical misadventure in two separate cases where patients died in hospital after operations.
Patrick Keating (64) of Kilminchy, Portlaoise, Co Laois, died at St James's Hospital on June 29th, 2006, from respiratory failure following an operation the previous day to unblock his left carotid artery.
A subsequent postmortem concluded that Mr Keating died from acute respiratory failure due the expansion of a haematoma at the operative site in his neck.
The inquest heard that Mr Keating underwent an operation to remove the fatty deposit due to atherosclerosis from his left carotid artery on June 28th, which was deemed a success.
He was discharged from recovery and back into the ward at around 9am on the evening of the operation. However, two hours later, Mr Keating was found in severe distress with difficulty breathing and suffered a cardiac arrest back in the operating theatre.
Dr Farrell also recorded a verdict of medical misadventure in the case of an 88-year-old woman who had been unable to eat due to a large tumour in her oesophagus.
Margaret Egan of West Row, Eastwall, Dublin, died at the Mater hospital on August 15th, 2006, the morning after an apparently successful operation to insert a stent, the inquest heard.