A CORONER’S jury has recommended to the Health Service Executive (HSE) that in future it inform the Garda immediately if any patient leaves the acute psychiatric unit at Ennis General Hospital without permission.
The jury at Ennis Coroner’s Court made the recommendation yesterday after hearing that gardaí were not informed by the HSE about Sara Finn (19) absconding from the acute unit on June 20th, 2008, until the following morning.
Ms Finn’s body was found in the grounds of St Flannan’s College in Ennis later that day.
The jury found she died of asphyxia as a result of ligature injuries.
The inquest was told that Ms Finn left the acute unit at 3.30pm on June 20th and it was not until 9am the following morning that gardaí were informed.
After the inquest yesterday, Sara’s mother, Carol Finn, said: “We are very happy with the rider to the verdict, there are a lot of sick kids out there that are allowed to walk out.
“If we can get a policy where the hospital informs the gardaí straight away and get them back, it will save a life.”
Sara’s mother Carol and step-father, Joe Chandler, officially opened last October the Sara Finn Drop-in Centre in Ennis that aims to help young people experiencing problems. Funds for the centre were raised by the HELP organisation.
The family’s solicitor, Eugene O’Kelly, told the inquest that the family accepted that there was an open-door policy at the unit, but believed that it should be tempered with certain conditions.
Mr O’Kelly said that Sara’s mother had expressed concern to the HSE that her daughter was engaging in self-mutilation.
Addressing the inquest, Ms Finn said: “If people had listened to me, I knew she was going to die.”
Consultant psychiatrist Dr John O’Mahony said that Sara Finn had been diagnosed with a moderate to severe psychiatric depressive disorder. He said she had been admitted to the psychiatric unit on a voluntary basis three times and was an in-patient at the unit from April 21st to June 20th.
Dr O’Mahony said that during her time as an inpatient she had absconded five times, but on four occasions she came back herself and on the fifth, was brought back.
Mr O’Kelly said that if Ms Finn had been there on an involuntary basis, it would have been much harder for her to leave the unit.
Under cross-examination by Mr O’Kelly on the treatment of psychiatric patients, Dr O’Mahony said: “There have been major changes in how we treat people with mental health disorders.
“For several centuries, attempts were made to lock people up, to deny them their civil rights, to treat them like prisoners.
“The approach we take is that we hope people will engage with us and it is a minority of our patients who are treated as ‘detained’ patients.”
Mr O’Kelly said that before her admission in April last year, Sarah had jumped out of the top floor of her family home and then jumped into the River Fergus where she was rescued by a Garda.
Dr O’Mahony said that when Sara was being admitted on April 4th, after she had jumped into the river, she told him that she didn’t want to die, but be admitted to hospital.
Mr O’Kelly said that while being treated at the acute unit, Ms Finn slashed her left wrist in the shower and had to be admitted to the hospital’s AE unit. “Her family are concerned that she would have had access to instruments and the means to slit her wrist in the acute unit.”
Dr O’Mahony said the alcohol found in Ms Finn’s system would have severely impaired her decision-making at the time of her death.
The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence that she had died of asphyxia as a result of ligature injuries.