THE FAMILY of a dementia patient who died after swallowing a glove in a nursing home said yesterday they were relieved to have “closure” after the home was found guilty of breaching regulations.
James Griffin (67) died in Waterford Regional Hospital on November 13th, 2008, five days after he ingested a latex glove in Mowlam Nursing Home run by Mowlam Healthcare on the city’s Dunmore Road.
Following a complaint by his family, the HSE took a criminal action against the nursing home, which was heard last year.
Delivering his decision yesterday, Judge David Kennedy found that the home had breached nursing home regulations by failing to provide sufficient care to Mr Griffin.
He imposed a fine of €750, along with costs.
During the case it emerged that Mr Griffin had severe dementia and lived in the high-dependency unit at the nursing home.
In the days before the fatal incident he had taken to swallowing non-food items such as gloves and sweet wrappers, and staff were told to prevent this with measures such as placing boxes of gloves on high shelves in bathrooms and not leaving them in his bedroom.
Staff found Mr Griffin in the doorway of his bedroom on the night of November 8th and realised he was choking. A latex glove was removed from his airway, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was performed before he was taken by ambulance to Waterford Regional Hospital. He died five days later.
An investigation was carried out by a three-person HSE team, and during last year’s hearings at Waterford District Court a staff member said she would “assume” that Mr Griffin got the glove from an assisted bathroom on the high-dependency floor of the home.
After yesterday’s judgment, Brendan Griffin, a brother of the deceased, said they were glad the matter was at an end.
“We have closure at least, after so long, very long. The reason we went to the HSE and made a complaint to the HSE, the only reason we did that was to stop it happening to any other family, all that we went through.”
He said the family was disappointed that Mowlam Healthcare had not “held their hands up” and said “we’re sorry” after his brother’s death.
His sister, Eleanor Griffin, said the family felt vindicated, “especially for Jim’s sake”, for taking the stance they did.
“He was an absolute gentleman,” she said.
Well-known around Waterford, James Griffin wrote local newspaper columns on horseracing and television, and also presented a chat show on WLRFM before he became ill.
“When we knew he had this condition,” Brendan said, “we met as a family and we actually went around to look at all the nursing homes in Waterford. We picked this particular one because we thought it would serve his needs the best.”