AN ELDERLY woman collapsed suddenly while being fed lunch by a care assistant at a hospital where she was a patient, an inquest has heard.
Mary Maguire (90) had taken the last spoonful of a liquidised lunch from care assistant Yvonne Joseph at St Mary’s Hospital in the Phoenix Park when she suddenly began to cough.
Ms Joseph told Dublin City Coroner’s Court yesterday that when Ms Maguire, who had a swallow problem, began to cough on the afternoon of September 30th, 2008, she tried to assist her and then sought help when she continued to cough.
Staff at the facility found her unresponsive and a doctor removed food from her mouth before administering oxygen. All attempts to resuscitate Ms Maguire failed.
A postmortem found Ms Maguire’s upper airways were filled with recently ingested food and that she died of choking.
She also had severe heart disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told the inquest that because of her swallow problem, Ms Maguire could have gagged on her food, which could have initiated a cardiac arrest.
He adjourned the inquest at the request of a friend of Ms Maguire, Evelyn Hannon, to September to call the pathologist Dr Tom Crotty to clarify the cause of death.