Man (86) suffered severe burns after collapsing near radiator, inquest hears

A man who suffered severe burns after collapsing next to a radiator in his apartment in Dublin could have been lying there for up to three days before he was discovered, an inquest has heard.

John Tuite (86), who was living at Father Lemass Court, Ballyfermot Road, died at St James’s Hospital on November 20th, 2019, less than 12 hours after he was discovered in the independent living complex for senior citizens operated by Dublin City Council.

A postmortem revealed that the father of three suffered a massive heart attack as well as severe burns to 12 per cent of his body as a result of lying next to a radiator. The examination indicated that he may have been on the floor for three days before being found.

Coroner Clare Keane said it was not possible to state conclusively but that it was likely that Mr Tuite collapsed from the heart attack before suffering the burns.

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In a statement to Dublin District Coroner’s Court, a liaison official in the complex, Mary Power, said she had been worried something was not right when she found the door to Mr Tuite’s apartment closed but not locked on November 19th, 2019. She said she found Mr Tuite lying in the hallway of his apartment.

Ms Power said he was conscious but barely able to talk and she presumed he was injured in a fall.

Ann Tuite, Mr Tuite’s daughter, told the coroner that the level of heat in the apartment was “unbelievable”.

“My father loved the heat but not to that extent,” she added.

Very independent

Ms Tuite said her father was very independent and highly mobile and would regularly take a bus or Luas to get around the city. He had continued working into his 80s in the office of a local undertaker. She said she presumed her father must have been either going to or coming from the toilet when he collapsed.

Garda Joanne Lyons, from Ballyfermot station, said investigators had not been able to establish when Mr Tuite was last seen or had spoken to anyone.

Ms Tuite said her family estimated that he may have been lying in the hallway for three to four days given the stubble on his face as “he was always clean shaven”.

A report from a consultant physician at St James’s Hospital, Nadim Akasheh, who treated Mr Tuite, said the patient was critically unwell on admission. He said Mr Tuite had suffered a significant cardiac injury as well as irreversible tissue loss.

The coroner returned a narrative verdict on Mr Tuite’s death as she noted it was due to a combination of a heart attack and severe burns. However, Dr Keane said the verdict was to reflect the fact that the order in which they happened was “not clear cut”.

Offering condolences to Mr Tuite’s family, the coroner said it seemed he had led “an amazing life”.