A 61-YEAR-OLD man died after coming off a hospital treadmill where he had had a routine, non-urgent stress test to see if he had any underlying heart conditions, an inquest heard yesterday.
On the recommendation of the coroner, the jury returned a verdict of medical misadventure.
Joseph Barry, St Stephen’s Park, Castleisland, Co Kerry, was fit and well, walked four miles a day with his dogs, danced every weekend and had given up smoking years ago, the inquest heard.
However, he had high cholesterol and a strong family history of heart disease; his father had died at 61 and his GP referred him to Kerry General for investigation.
Tests were carried out in March 2008, including an ECG, which proved normal. It was decided to carry out a stress test, which would indicate if there were any underlying problems not obvious in the ECG, the inquest heard. This was arranged for July 28th.
Dr Ahmed Hassan, senior doctor at the hospital who saw Mr Barry in March 2008, said he had recommended the stress test.
Coroner Helen Lucey said she had traced the junior doctor who carried out the stress test in question to hospitals in the UK and had asked her to attend the inquest, and had in fact adjourned the inquest previously to allow her to attend, but she had not come.
Cardiac technician Susan Gallagher said Mr Barry had said he felt fine coming off the treadmill. However, as he bent to pick up his bag he fell against a chair. He failed to respond to resuscitation and was later pronounced dead.
Pathologist Dr Kenneth Feeley who carried out the postmortem said he had found an old area of scarring of the heart muscle, indicating Mr Barry had suffered a previous heart attack that he may not have known about. There was also severe blockage of the arteries.
“It is likely that the demand the exercise placed on the heart tipped the balance,” Dr Feeley said.