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The family of a 54-year-old mother with three children who presented to a hospital twice with severe pain in her leg and later died of a blood clot, settled her lawsuit in High Court for 325,000 euros.
Doireann O’Mahony BL told the Superior Court Tuesday that Bridie Kelly’s family is deeply aggrieved by the way she was “neglected and deprived of a simple life-saving treatment” in the form of anticoagulation.
The lawyer said it was a very tragic case stemming from the death of Ms Kelly at Letterkenny University Hospital in April 2018.
Her case was that there had been a supposed avoidable and inexcusable delay in the diagnosis and treatment of Ms. Kelly’s deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
The HSE admitted a breach of duty in the case, but disputed causation.
The hospital later apologized for the shortcomings in clinical care and events that occurred in the run-up to Ms. Kelly’s death. A serious incident review was also conducted in his death.
John Kelly, Drumbeigh, Mountcharles, Co Donegal, had sued the HSE for the death of his wife Bridie two years ago.
Ms. Kelly first went to the Letterkenny University Hospital emergency department on February 27, 2018 due to swelling and severe pain in the calf of her left leg.
It was stated that she should have been sent for an ultrasound of the veins in her legs, as her D-dimer levels were claimed to be very high and strongly suggesting the presence of a blood clot in the veins.
Instead, she was informed that her symptoms were due to muscle pain and was discharged.
It was claimed that if the proper images had been taken, the deep vein thrombosis would have been discovered and a full dose of anticoagulant treatment would have been started and the blood clot would have resolved without complications within three to six months.
Ms. Kelly returned to the hospital on April 22, 2018 with more pain and swelling in her left leg. His D-dimer level was claimed to be nearly ten times the upper limit of normal and could only have been caused by deep vein thrombosis. It was claimed that the ultrasound was not performed until two days later, on April 24, 2018. DVT was diagnosed and Ms. Kelly was prescribed.
It was claimed that the prescription was written in a supposedly poor manner, leading to an error in the dosage of the drug administered. Only a small fraction of the planned doses were administered, meaning that for two days Ms. Kelly received no treatment. The correct prescription was written a day later, but Ms. Kelly died on April 30, 2018 after suffering a massive pulmonary embolism.
It was alleged that normal and reasonable care and skill had not been exercised in the management, care and treatment of Ms. Kelly and that she had been discharged with a presumed probable DVT.
In addition, it was claimed that the prescription for her blood-thinning medication had been written in an allegedly poor manner, leading to an error in the administered dose, meaning that Ms. Kelly received no treatment between April 24 and 26, 2018.
In approving the settlement, Judge Kevin Cross said it was a sad death and that nothing anyone can do can bring Ms. Kelly back, but it was a good settlement.
He sympathized with the family for “this sad loss.”
Outside of court, the family’s attorney Ciaran Tansey said the Kellys have had a very difficult two and a half years. He said an HSE report on the incident had made a series of recommendations “so that this does not happen again” and the Kelly family, he said, is determined that HSE will implement “to the fullest extent possible all those recommendations and hopefully This will be the last day we will be out of the Four Courts ”.
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