Coroner's office to request check on unexplained blood sample

Dublin Coroner’s office is to investigate a possible blood sample mix-up relating to the death of an 85-year-old woman.

The family of Eibhlis Kennedy from Orchardstown Avenue in Rathfarnham say toxic levels of paracetamol found in her system at autopsy “do not make sense”.

Mrs Kennedy died suddenly of a cardiac arrest due to heart disease on February 4th last year. She had had a pacemaker fitted and the cause of death at postmortem was given as cardiac arrest due to heart disease. However, a blood sample sent to the State laboratory for tests as part of the postmortem returned a high level of paracetamol.

Family members said the woman ate very little and had trouble swallowing tablets. “She could hardly drink a glass of water. It doesn’t make sense,” the woman’s daughter, Patricia Anderton, told Dublin Coroner’s Court.

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Toxicology sample

Ms Anderton said the family felt the toxicology sample was either a mistake or incorrectly labelled as she could not understand how her mother could have swallowed such a high volume of tablets.

The blood sample detected the presence of alcohol at a level of two to three units, the inquest heard.The family said their mother never drank at home.

Deputy Coroner Dr Crona Gallagher said the sample was checked twice and revealed high levels of paracetamol on both occasions. Dr Gallagher agreed to adjourn the inquest in a bid to clarify the situation.

“You obviously feel this is completely incorrect. The only option is to write to the State laboratory and ask if there is any possibility of a mislabelled sample. It’s unlikely, but given that none of this has really been explained, we can write to the relevant bodies and explore the possibility of a mix-up,” the coroner said.

The inquest was adjourned until September.