A Tipperary family has now settled their High Court action, taken against the HSE seeking €600,000, following the death of a 51-year-old father of five, just days after a road traffic accident.
The High Court heard that a significant small bowel injury was overlooked completely by staff at Cork University Hospital.
Then patient, Mr Patrick Connolly slowly deteriorated before dying of a heart attack, while in the care of staff at Cork University Hospital, five days after the tragic road accident outside Tipperary town on December 28th, 2021.
The court were informed that no particular attention was paid to a bowel injury in the hospital and Mr Connolly’s health gradually deteriorated. Mr Connolly was in a lot of pain, was vomiting and had two heart attacks. He died after his second heart attack on January 2nd, 2022. The HSE admitted that Mr Connolly had a small bowel perforation that was not diagnosed in a timely manner.
The health service also admitted that if a laparoscopic assessment had been carried out at any time from Mr Connolly’s admission to hospital, until the time of his first heart attack, there would have been a high likelihood of him surviving the accident.
The collision had occurred when a car driven by Ms Mary Lowry, latter a central witness in the Mr Moonlight murder trial, had collided with a motorcycle ridden by Mr Patrick Connolly; with his son as a pillion passenger.
Last year Ms Lowry, aged 57 years, was given a suspended one-year jail sentence and a one-year driving ban, after she admitted a charge of careless driving in relation to the accident.
Mr Connolly’s widow, Mrs Geraldine Connolly, had sued the HSE on behalf of her family over the death of her husband.
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