A woman who was flagged at two Limerick hospitals for \u201csepsis\u201d, but who was not given the prescribed medication in time, died from cardiac respiratory failure, a day after suffering a miscarriage, her inquest heard Thursday.<\/p>\n
Leona Cusack (33), Balycasey, Co Clare, might have survived if she had received a \u201cbroad spectrum\u201d of antibiotics. She died on February 18th, 2024.<\/p>\n
However, it was agreed that, due to a \u201cbreach\u201d in HSE sepsis protocols, while Ms Cusack was a patient at University Hospital Limerick, she was initially only given a \u201cnarrow spectrum\u201d of antibiotics.<\/p>\n
Following two days of evidence, the Limerick Coroner\u2019s Court found that Ms Cusack died of cardiac respiratory failure due neutrophilic myocarditis, a very rare condition that, the inquest heard can be caused by sepsis or can be a source of sepsis.<\/p>\n
Ms Cusack was eventually \u201cloaded\u201d with antibiotics after her blood markers for sepsis rose \u201cextraordinarily high\u201d on February 17th, and \u201cdoubly extraordinarily high\u201d on February 18th.<\/p>\n
Damien Tansey, solicitor for Ms Cusack\u2019s family, however, said, the loading of the broad spectrum of antibiotics on February 17th was \u201ctoo late\u201d, and had \u201cno impact\u201d on her condition.<\/p>\n
The hearing heard that Ms Cusack was five weeks pregnant following IVF treatment when, supported by her husband Conor Cusack, she initially presented at University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL), on February 15th.<\/p>\n
Bleeding and suffering from abdomen cramps, Ms Cusack underwent blood tests at the maternity hospital before going back to her home, believing no bed available at the hospital.<\/p>\n
The couple returned to the maternity hospital, the following day, February 16th, after Ms Cusack\u2019s condition worsened; She was vomiting and had a raised white blood cell count.<\/p>\n
A consultant gynecologist at UMHL, Dr Suhaib Akhtar Birmani, had flagged a sepsis infection, and he told the inquest that he ordered the HSE\u2019s sepsis protocol at UMHL.<\/p>\n
Ms Cusack should have received a \u201cbroad spectrum\u201d of antibiotics within one hour, as per the HSE\u2019s protocol, however the medication was not given at UMHL.<\/p>\n
After attending the maternity hospital again on February 17th, Ms Cusack was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick, diagnosed with a fast heart rate and deemed to be at risk of a suffering a heart attack.<\/p>\n
She was received by UHL\u2019s coronary care unit under the care of cardiologist, Dr Cormac O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
During his evidence at the inquest, Dr O\u2019Connor became emotional and apologised to Ms Cusack\u2019s loved ones for \u201clanguage\u201d he used when speaking to Ms Cusack\u2019s sister Rachael Kirwan, a qualified advanced nurse practitioner,<\/p>\n
Ms Kirwan said she was upset after dr O\u2019Connor had told her Ms Cusack had \u201cthe heart of a lion\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dr O\u2019Connor told the inquest: \u201cI made the comment to try to comfort (Ms Kirwan), I apologise for any distress caused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr O\u2019Connor said he could not recall telling Ms Kirwan that Ms Cusack was could be \u201cshadow boxing\u201d in the coroner of the room.<\/p>\n
The cardiologist agreed with Damien Tansey that, the HSE\u2019s sepsis protocol, was \u201cbreached\u201d as Ms Cusack was initially given a \u201cnarrow\u201d spectrum of antibiotics to treat her infection.<\/p>\n
Dr O\u2019Connor said, \u201cthe focus was on trying to find the source\u201d of the infection. He disagreed that sepsis was ignored, and he said Ms Cusack was eventually \u201cactively escalated with antibiotics\u201d.<\/p>\n
As her condition grew more critical, Ms Cusack was transferred out of the coronary care unit to the intensive care unit.<\/p>\n
Damien Tansey told the inquest the escalation of antibiotics was \u201ctoo late\u201d for Ms Cusack and she died at UHL at 7.39pm, February 18th, four days after she had first presented at UHL\u2019s sister hospital, UMHL.<\/p>\n
All of the staff at UMHL and UHL which were involved in Ms Cusack\u2019s care offered their deepest sympathies to her family.<\/p>\n
Describing it as a \u201ccomplex case\u201d, Limerick Coroner, John McNamara, noted the \u201cbreach of sepsis protocol\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr McNamara said he was not satisfied to record a verdict of death by natural causes nor death by medical misadventure.<\/p>\n
He said the inquest was a \u201cfact-finding\u201d exercise and recorded a \u201cnarrative\u201d verdict, in line with the chain of evidence heard.<\/p>\n
Ms Cusack\u2019s loved ones wept in court after the verdict was delivered.<\/p>\n
Speaking afterwards, Conor Cusack paid an emotional tribute to his late wife: \u201cLeona was the nicest bubbliest person you\u2019d ever meet in your life, she was the love of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking at Ms Cusack\u2019s parents and her sisters, Mr Cusack, said: \u201cSure Eamonn and Clare would tell you she was the best daughter, and Sarah and Rachael would say the same about being their sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was loved by everyone,\u201d Mr Cusack said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman who was flagged at two Limerick hospitals for \u201csepsis\u201d, but who was not given the prescribed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-85436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85436","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=85436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}