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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
David Raleigh

HSE to probe death of woman, 21, who died hours after being sent home from hospital

The HSE is to conduct an independent examination into the death of a young woman from a heart attack hours after she was sent home from hospital.

Eve Cleary, 21, died at University Hospital Limerick on July 21, 2019.

She had been discharged four hours earlier from the hospital in a wheelchair and in pain.

READ MORE - Mum's heartbreak as daughter dies on Limerick Hospital trolley in urine-soaked corridor

A verdict of medical misadventure was recorded by Limerick coroner John McNamara following an inquest last October.

A HSE spokeswoman said independent reviews "very often can contribute to learning".

She added it was "not unusual for health and social care services to review cases".

Eve’s mother Melanie Sheehan said she and her family were "very happy" that the review, to be led by an independent legal counsel, was happening.

She added: "We were told it would start in the next couple of weeks. They are anxious to get it started because Eve will be dead four years in July and they said they are very conscious of the time that we have already lost.

"I hope Eve’s whole truth and story will come out. Getting justice for Eve is all this has ever been about."

The inquest heard that Eve had arrived at the hospital with a number of risk factors for thrombosis and blood clots.

She spent 17 hours on a trolley in a foul-smelling section of a corridor in the hospital’s Emergency Department which, at the time, was swamped by a "record" number of trolleys.

Ms Cleary’s parents told the inquest hearing into Eve’s death that they discovered their daughter on a trolley close to a sink that another patient had used as a toilet.

Melanie Sheehan said: "The smell of urine caught in my breath and made me cough."

Eve was not assessed for risk of blood clots, despite having a family history of them and presenting with several risk factors.

It was accepted she was never physically seen by a consultant.

Despite being unable to walk because she was in severe pain, Ms Cleary was discharged from the hospital in a wheelchair.

Four hours later she went into cardiac arrest at her home and was rushed by ambulance back to UHL where she died.

Coroner John McNamara said there had been "missed opportunities" in Ms Cleary’s care, but stressed this was not to fault anyone involved in her care.

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