A NURSE who was looking after a mother of three, who collapsed and died while waiting for a bed in the accident and emergency department of the Mater hospital, had asked a doctor to carry out an examination of the patient a number of hours before her death as she was concerned about her ongoing pain, an inquest has heard.
Beverly Seville-Doyle (39), Manor Grove, Whitehall Road, Terenure, Dublin, collapsed in a toilet cubicle at the AE department shortly after 6am on January 15th, 2008.
Despite intensive resuscitation attempts which lasted up to an hour, Ms Seville-Doyle, who suffered from diabetes, died.
Nurse Paula Monaghan was caring from Ms Seville-Doyle in the AE department from approximately 8.15pm on the evening of January 14th.
Nurse Monaghan told the third day of the inquest into her death at Dublin City Coroner’s Court yesterday that Ms Seville-Doyle received analgesia for a pain in her left shoulder at 10pm and again at 11pm on January 14th.
When the pain had not been resolved at midnight, an electrocardiogram (ECG) was carried out, which was reviewed by Dr Katie McFaul and found to be normal.
Ms Seville-Doyle, who had a two week history of left-sided chest pain, had been transferred to the AE department from the outpatients after vomiting earlier that evening as no bed was available for her.
Nurse Monaghan also requested Dr McFaul to carry out a medical review of the patient, in light of her pain and her difficulty sleeping, which Dr McFaul did at 3am after attending to another patient.
Dr McFaul told the inquest that a management plan had been put in place for Ms Seville-Doyle’s care and included treatment for elevated blood glucose and dehydration, a possible bleed in her stomach and investigations for any possible underlying causes of her discomfort.
She said her examination of Ms Seville-Doyle at 3am on January 15th, a review which she herself had planned to do on the night, had included the taking of blood culture, arterial gases and cardiac enzymes.
It had revealed stable vital signs and a mild diffuse abdominal tenderness.
Ms Seville-Doyle’s blood glucose levels had normalised and she said there were no objective signs of a blood clot in the lungs (pulmonary embolism/PE) and she did not feel it (PE) was an issue.
Ms Seville-Doyle had received further Panadol for pain at that time.
At about 6am, Ms Seville-Doyle, who was seated in a reclining chair near the nurses’ station, informed Nurse Monaghan that she wanted to go to the toilet.
Nurse Monaghan observed Ms Seville-Doyle get to her feet without difficulty and move towards the bathroom.
Seconds later, while she was attending to another patient, she heard the sound of Ms Seville-Doyle falling in the bathroom.
A nursing colleague went immediately to her assistance and Ms Seville-Doyle, who had collapsed behind the toilet cubicle door, was rushed to the resuscitation area where resuscitation got under way.
The coroner adjourned the inquest for further hearing until February, where two days have been set aside for the hearing.
He expressed his sympathies to the members of Ms Seville-Doyle’s family in court in light of the anniversary of her death tomorrow.