The family of a man who was given an accidental overdose of medicine including two anti- psychotic drugs at a Co Clare nursing home and died later has settled a High Court action over his death.<\/p>\n
Along with his own medicine, John Mee was given five other medications on June 24, 2021 at the Cahercalla Community Hospital, Ennis including two anti psychotic drugs, medication for heart pain, debilitating insomnia and an anti depressant which were meant for another patient.<\/p>\n
The family\u2019s counsel Doireann O\u2019Mahony BL told the High Court it was their case the 71-year old from Miltown Malbay, Co Clare became increasingly unwell and drowsy but was not transferred to hospital for 18 hours.<\/p>\n
Counsel said they would say the \u201cdie was cast\u201d and Mr Mee in hospital was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and later found to be in respiratory failure. He died on June 30, 2021. Counsel said a breach of duty was admitted in the case.<\/p>\n
The board of directors of Cahercalla Community Hospital, Ms O\u2019Mahony added, had this month issued a letter of apology to the Mee family.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cWe apologise for the hurt and grief caused to John\u2019s family for incorrectly administering the medication of another patient to him art Cahercalla Community Hospital resulting in his death.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Outside court, Mr Mee\u2019s two sisters, Bernadette Mee and Sr Gabriel Margaret Mee who had brought the case against Cahercalla Community Hospital Co Ltd said their brother had chosen a nursing home \u201cthinking that would be the place he would get the ultimate care he needed”.<\/p>\n
Bernadette Mee on behalf of the family said it was \u201ca sad state of affairs that such a thing could happen in a caring institution.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the case was not about claiming anything, but \u201cabout sharing the story and being heard and listened to”.<\/p>\n
She said the apology does mean something.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have it in writing formally. It does mean something, it copper fastens it,\u2019 Ms Mee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very emotional day but it is bittersweet because nothing can bring John back. We were all together on this journey and we have reached the end of the road . The only thing I can say is in this sad situation we had a marvellous legal team and support,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
In the proceedings it was claimed the erroneous dispensing of medications placed Mr Mee at increased risk if respiratory decline and it was claimed it was ultimately the catalyst for his tragic death.<\/p>\n
It was contended that sub-standard care had been provided to Mr Mee and there was a failure to dispense medications safely and correctly.<\/p>\n
Mr Mee, it was claimed, had been overdosed and there was a failure to appreciate the importance of his decreasing oxygen levels and increased drowsiness particularly as he was an elderly man with several co morbidities.<\/p>\n
It was claimed he was allowed to remain unwell for about 18 hours prior to his eventual transfer to University Hospital Limerick.<\/p>\n
Medications it was claimed had been dispensed in error which ultimately resulted in Mr Mee\u2019s respiratory decline and death.<\/p>\n
Noting the settlement and approving the division of the \u20ac35,000 mental distress solatium payment, Mr Justice Paul Coffey extended his deepest sympathy to the Mee family and said it was a very sad and tragic case.<\/p>\n
The Limerick coroner in the case two years ago delivered a verdict of medical misadventure and said the medication error was a catalyst in the events that led to John Mee\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The inquest heard that \u201cextra checks\u201d were since put in place at the nursing home in respect of the administration of medication to residents, which included a \u201cphotograph\u201d of the resident beside their room number and medication chart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a man who was given an accidental overdose of medicine including two anti- psychotic drugs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54,1115,61,60,2285,43],"class_list":["post-460548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-justice","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}