A 32-YEAR-OLD man died of brain injury after emergency services took more than 30 minutes to respond to a 999 call in Dublin city centre, an inquest has heard.
Warren (Luke) Hendy of Mullinagower, Castlebridge, Co Wexford died from heroin toxicity at the Mater hospital in Dublin on March 16th, 2010, after being found unconscious on the floor of a toilet cubicle two days previously.
Mr Hendy’s inquest heard how William Beresford, an employee at the Station Casino on Dublin’s Amiens Street called 999 at 9.49pm on March 14th, after he discovered two men were locked in the casino’s toilets and were unresponsive. “I called the police and an ambulance as I heard gurgling when I put my ear to the door of the toilet,” Mr Beresford said at the inquest which was previously adjourned.
Gardaí arrived at the scene about 35 minutes after the emergency call was made because of a shortage of patrol cars. No ambulance arrived. Gardaí put in a second request for paramedics, but not until they had been at the scene for 12 minutes.
Garda Carol Byrne of Store Street Garda station, said it took 12 minutes to assess the seriousness of the situation as they were unable to gain access to the toilet cubicle. Mr Hendy’s brother Ivan was in the toilet cubicle with him. He was very disorientated and was blocking the doorway, she said. The two brothers had both injected themselves with heroin.
Gda Byrne said Luke appeared to be breathing as his chest was rising and falling. However, she later found out this occurs when the brain is starved of oxygen.
Explaining the 30-minute delay, Gda Byrne said: “At the time the two other mobiles were dealing with incidents involving prisoners and the other mobile was on call. We deal with incidents on an order of priority. When we came on duty, we were the next available patrol car, so we went to the scene.”
Mr Hendy’s father Thomas told the inquest: “There was a change in shifts happening, there was a 30 minute delay getting gardaí to the scene, that could have been life and death for my son and I can’t accept that”.
Returning a verdict of death by misadventure, Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell said: “I can’t say whether the delay contributed to death but obviously the sooner someone is seen, the better. I will be contacting the 999 control centre to raise these issues surrounding Luke’s death. This delay is particularly significant and we are concerned to act so such situations wouldn’t arise again.”