A CONSULTANT physician told an inquest yesterday a 19-year-old Lithuanian woman might still have died even if she had been transferred to the intensive care unit of Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar some hours earlier.
However, Dr Colm Quigley, clinical director and consultant physician at Wexford General Hospital, said an issue arose as to whether Justina Kriaciunatie had been seen by a doctor of sufficient seniority and experience as quickly as was required.
Dr Quigley carried out an independent report into the death of Ms Kriaciunatie, after being supplied with case notes by the hospital.
The teenager died on November 10th, 2010, 11 hours after being admitted to the hospital with severe stomach pains and complaining of not being able to breathe.
Her parents, Inga and Valdas, who live at Grattan Park, Claremorris, earlier told the inquest – being conducted by coroner for south Mayo, John O’Dwyer – they were “very concerned” about the medical treatment given their daughter.
The couple, who came to Ireland as mushroom pickers, were told their daughter had died due to a myocardial infarction caused by sudden adult death syndrome.
Through an interpreter, they said they could not understand why their daughter’s symptoms had not been diagnosed earlier and why a healthy girl would die so quickly.
In his report, Dr Quigley said Ms Kriaciunatie had been admitted to the hospital with severe pain. She was noted to be hypotensive and to have abdominal tenderness.
A diagnosis of peptic ulcer disease had been made by the patient’s GP and this diagnosis appeared to have continued as a working diagnosis both by the emergency department doctor and the medical senior house officer.
Dr Quigley said the patient was urgently transferred to intensive care after Dr Florrie Daniels took over as medical registrar from another doctor in C Block at 7pm.
“I would have concerns that from at least 5.45pm that this young patient, who was becoming more ill, should have been seen by a medical registrar on-call. The delay in calling or informing the medical registrar, however, appears to be of the order of less than an hour,” he said.
Dr Quigley said he had no issues with the care of the patient after 7pm. His main concern arose as to the middle portion of the patient’s care from 3.45pm to 6.40pm.
He added the medical registrar was asked to see the patient but the exact timing of this needed to be absolutely identified as, from the case notes, he could not be absolutely certain.
The inquest was adjourned by the coroner until a date in October when evidence will be heard from further witnesses.