A verdict of accidental death has been recorded at an inquest into the death of a man who fell into a river and drowned after absconding from Mayo University Hospital in Castlebar early last year.
At the conclusion of a five-day hearing, Mayo coroner Patrick O’Connor said it was clear from the evidence that Patrick Rowland (69), from Lahardane, Ballina, did not want to stay in the hospital.
“A hospital is not a prison,” he told the inquest at Swinford Courthouse. “While Patrick Rowland was admitted with significant medical conditions, he was not detained under the Mental Health Act.”
He said staff had “limited powers available” and all they could do was “try to persuade a patient” to stay in the hospital.
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Mr O’Connor said that while it may be difficult for Mr Rowland’s family to accept, “it was Patrick Rowland’s own choice to leave the hospital despite this medical best interests”.
A previous sitting of the inquest heard that Mr Rowland was admitted on January 15th, 2023 and was diagnosed with pneumonia and sepsis. He spent 42 hours on a trolley in the emergency department and on a corridor before being transferred to a ward, accompanied by medical staff and his son, Cormac, late on January 16th.
Cormac Rowland left at about 12.40am and travelled home, but at 1.13am he received a call from his father who said he was outside the hospital in slippers and pyjamas and wanted to go home.
When his son arrived in Castlebar he found no sign of his father and an extensive search was mounted. This continued for two days and ended when the missing man’s body was discovered in the Castlebar river downstream of the town.
Mr O’Connor made a number of recommendations directed at Mayo University Hospital, Saolta University Health Care Group and the HSE after delivering his verdict. He said guidelines about sepsis and the recording of early warning scores should be adhered to. He said training should be given to all staff in the hospital on how to deal with patients seeking to self-discharge and those at risk of absconding, and that these should form part of a patient’s medical record.
He also made recommendations directed at Mayo County Council, which has responsibility for amenities in the area, around railings at a bridge where Mr Rowland’s slipper was found, and for a river barrier to be placed closer to the town so that if a person fell in, their body could not be carried outside its environs.
Speaking afterwards, the Rowland family welcomed the coroner’s recommendations but expressed dissatisfaction.
Roger Murray, solicitor and senior counsel, said the family was contemplating civil proceedings against the HSE as it was their position that had clinical and non-clinical information been given to hospital staff at handover, Mr Rowland would never have got near the river and the “calamity” would not have happened.
Cormac Rowland said his father was a man who “adhered to the system” and the “manner in which he met his end causes us great distress”. He said Patrick Rowland was not in the “fullness of his mind” at the time.
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