A woman whose husband died on his own on a hospital trolley five years ago claims record new trolley figures show “nothing’s changed” since his death.
Marie McMahon was devastated in April 2018 when her husband Thomas Wynne died after 36 hours on a trolley in the corridors of University Hospital Limerick - which has again had the highest number of patients waiting on trolleys for a bed in recent days.
Marie, from Ennistymon in Co Clare, accused health chiefs of making “empty promises” but “doing nothing year after year”, resulting in the deaths of patients like her husband Thomas.
READ MORE: Clare widow tells of shock as hospital asks for signature of husband who died on trolley
She exclusively told the Irish Mirror: “Leaving patients on trolleys and treating them in corridors in front of other people is inhumane. The [health chiefs] just see cases, but there is an individual behind every one of the record new 931 patients on trolleys [announced by the INMO] and there are worried families behind each of these individuals.”
Thomas was aged 65 when he was found unresponsive on a trolley in UHL on April 17, 2018. The cause of death was stated as a heart attack. When Marie rang the hospital to ask about Tommy, she was told that he “had died on the trolley”, according to the couple’s daughter Cara.
Mother-of-one Marie, who was married to Thomas for nearly 40 years, and Cara contacted the hospital to ask for details of his death. But they were shocked to read in an email on May 2, 2018, that they needed to provide the dead man’s signature for an investigation to proceed.
The hospital told the heartbroken family: “We require permission from your father to proceed.” It apologised for this error – but Marie told the Irish Mirror: “New record hospital trolley figures are being recorded all the time.
“Sadly, we are used to that in this crisis. UHL seems in constant crisis. Nobody is listening. It is consistently at the top of the highest trolley figure counts.
“Every one of the latest 931 patients [from the INMO’s record trolley count on Monday] is an individual person with a family. I feel that Tommy was treated inhumanely and it was the same for patients on trolleys over this Christmas.
“The situation has not changed since 2018. They apologised but it is not getting any better; it’s getting worse. Patients are treated in corridors in front of everyone. It is a disgrace. It is humiliating.
“People are there on their own with no support. If you treated animals like that, you should be in court. They are carrying on the same way as they did in 2018. They see cases, not people.
“Who wants their last memories of their loved ones to be them lying on a trolley in a hospital corridor? The health chiefs are failing us as a country. That’s the tragedy of it. We’re told to contact out-of-hour services, but these services are also overwhelmed.”
UHL said: “We have apologised to Mr Wynne’s loved ones for the length of the wait time in the emergency department and for poor communication during his care.
“UL Hospitals Group has been dealing directly with the family on their concerns. We would like to express our sympathies to Mr Wynne’s family on their great loss.”
The statement added: “The emergency department at University Hospital Limerick is one of the busiest in the country.”
After Tommy was found dead on a hospital trolley at UHL, Marie joined the Mid West Hospital Campaign to protest for better medical services in Clare, Limerick, and Tipperary.
She spoke publicly for the first time about her pain in May 2019 at a protest rally and said: “There is zero respect, dignity or compassion shown to anyone who is on a trolley or sitting on a chair.
“I hate to think of Tommy’s last few hours alive. It was cruel, inhumane, and barbaric. No human being should ever have to go through that yet it is happening every day.”
She added yesterday: “I think of my late husband every time I see the overcrowded trolley figures.”
Meanwhile, a 30-year-old man with Crohn's disease said he witnessed "bedlam" and "absolute chaos" at UHL during four days on a trolley in its A&E over Christmas.
Liam O'Brien, from Miltown Malbay in Co Clare, arrived by ambulance on December 26, was put in a wheelchair and left at the emergency department doors.
He said he was dehydrated, in pain, and asked for a trolley as it was more comfortable lying down. But he did not see a medic "for hours" and did not see a doctor until later, although his pain "continued and my temperature went through the roof”.
He revealed: “I spent the night at the counter of the nurses' station."
He was moved into a corridor the next morning and stayed there for another three days. He told RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne: “Nurses were getting abuse left, right and centre and some are literally reduced to tears."
Toilet access is vital for his condition, but Liam said there was only one toilet and did not see a gastro specialist until day three on the trolley.
He was prescribed steroids and told on December 30 that he could have a procedure within a week, but yesterday said he has not received an appointment.
He added: “I don't know where to go next."
UL Hospitals Group, which manages UHL, apologised to him and to "any person who has been experiencing long waits for hospital beds in University Hospital Limerick or to see a doctor in the emergency department”.
It added that the hospital’s record high attendances at its ED in recent months had intensified due to a surge in respiratory infections like flu, Covid-19, and Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The group recorded 121 patients at UHL's emergency department yesterday, with 78 admitted and waiting for a bed.
A spokesperson said: "This is not the level of care we wish to provide and we apologise to anyone who has been impacted at this time.
"We continue to advise patients who are seriously ill or injured, or worried that their life is in danger, to attend the ED where they will be treated as a priority.”
Staff, including over 20 consultants, have been asked to work and it has opened additional surge beds in Ennis, Nenagh and St John's hospitals.
Only urgent elective surgeries are to be carried out at UHL in the coming days.
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