TD says UHL management ‘have to go’ after inquest reveals man found dead for an hour on A&E floor

A patient who died at University Hospital Limerick and had fallen off a trolley in the emergency department may have been dead for over an hour before staff found him lying on the floor, an inquest has heard.

Martin Abbott, 65, was unable to be ventilated by a doctor by the time he was found because rigor mortis had already set in.

A verdict of death by medical misadventure was recorded by Limerick Coroner’s Court in the case of Mr Abbott from Shannon, Co. Clare, who died in December of 2019.

Coroner John McNamara assigned blame to UHL’s overcrowding, for which it has been “in the news for all the wrong reasons”.

UHL offered apologies to the Abbott family previously and apologised for what it described as “deficits in his care”.

Speaking to Gript, Independent TD for Limerick County, Richard O’Donoghue said that “100 percent” people in the area were developing a fear of attending UHL as a result of the hospital’s overcrowding.

“I had a TIA myself in May and I didn’t want to go to UHL. Now it’s not care that you get that’s the problem, the problem is to get you to the care that you need,” Deputy O’Donoghue said.

Mr Abbott, who had a complex medical history including a previous kidney transplant, had presented to the UHL Emergency Department December 14, 2019, after suffering from a fever, cough and diarrhoea for a week. He was given antibiotics and IV fluids for a diagnosis of legionnaire’s disease as he awaited admission to a hospital bed.

He was placed on a trolley in an isolation cubicle as a result of his immunocompromised state, where he spent three days waiting for a hospital bed.

He was found lying face-down on the floor beside his trolley in the cubicle at 4.40am and pronounced dead at 4.55am. The inquest heard that Mr Abbott could not be ventilated as his face and neck were rigid as a result of rigor mortis.

Rigor mortis usually sets in two hours after death, but can be hastened by factors such as severe shock, sepsis or fever.

The inquest heard that Mr Abbott may have been dead on the floor for over an hour before he was discovered by hospital staff.

Deputy O’Donoghue said that the CEO and management of UHL “have to go” for the way the hospital has been structured and set up.

“I 100 percent believe that in 2009 when they tried to start a hospital of excellence, they never took into account a rising population in the neighbouring counties that would be looking at these services,” Mr O’Donoghue said adding that the medical reconfiguration that took place was the reason “a lot of people died and suffered needlessly”.

UHL has been subject to intense media scrutiny in recent months as details came to light regarding the deaths of two young women in the hospital in recent years.

A 16-year old girl died in the hospital’s emergency department in January, 2023, just weeks after the death of 16-year old Aoife Johnson, who died in the hospital’s emergency department from bacterial meningitis in December 2022, two days after she first presented at the A&E.

Mr O’Donoghue described UHL’s emergency department as suffering from a “funnel” or “bottleneck” scenario, where people in need of urgent medical attention are passing hospitals on the way to UHL, with a general understanding among people in the greater Limerick area that they will likely be left waiting for “hours and hours”.