The husband of a woman stabbed on a city street told how he couldn't join his dying wife in an ambulance due to Covid restrictions
Tragic Urantsetseg Tserendorj’s husband gave evidence on Thursday at the Dublin trial of a 16-year-old boy accused of murdering the Mongolian woman by stabbing her, severing the main artery to her brain.
Ulambayer Surenkho told prosecutor Sean Gillane SC how he was at home on January 20 last year when he got an urgent call from his distressed wife at around 9.30pm.
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Mr Surenkhor rushed from their home, still wearing his slippers, and found her near the Luas stop at Connolly Station. She was holding her neck and he could see blood.
An ambulance arrived and took her to the Mater Hospital but Mr Surenkhor couldn’t go with her due to Covid restrictions.
Gardai contacted Mr Surenkhor later that day to say that her condition had worsened and he was brought to hospital.
She did not recover, Mr Surenkhor said, and died nine days later.
The accused, who can’t be identified as he is a minor, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Tserendorj but guilty to her manslaughter. He has also pleaded guilty to producing a knife and to attempting to rob Ms Tserendorj near Custom House Quay in Dublin.
Earlier, Assistant State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers told Mr Gillane that a single stab wound partially severed Ms Tserendorj’s internal carotid artery, cutting off the blood flow to her brain and causing her death.
Dr Okkers also told Mr Gillane that the injury Ms Tserendorj suffered does not cause immediate collapse and in some cases a person can remain conscious for up to two hours.
She said this would explain how Ms Tserendorj was able to walk from near the CHQ building to Connolly Station where she met her husband.
Paramedic James Eagers told Mr Gillane that when he checked Ms Tserendorj’s vital signs they were all normal and she seemed calm, although she was struggling to speak.
He could see the injury, about the size of a five cent piece, but it was not bleeding. He gave her a dressing to hold against it.
In the ambulance she became more distressed, finding it difficult to breathe. On arrival at the Mater she was taken immediately to resuscitation.
ICU consultant Dr Jennifer Hastings told the court that five days after Ms Tserndorj’s admission a scan showed her brain had swollen so much it was extending out of the base of the skull. When medics turned off her sedation, Ms Tserendorj’s heart rate and blood pressure became unstable so she was put back on life support.
Four days later Dr Hastings carried out further tests which showed that the patient’s brain had suffered irreversible damage and she was declared dead at 5.24pm that afternoon.
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