No external power supply was available to run a heart machine after its battery failed during the transfer by ambulance of a critically ill woman between two Dublin hospitals.
Anne Scattergood (77), Baldoyle, Co Dublin, was being brought by ambulance from Beaumont Hospital to the Mater on July 21st, 2009, when an intra-aortic balloon pump machine, which was assisting her blood pressure, stopped working.
Her condition deteriorated and she was rushed to the Mater as an emergency, where she was pronounced dead 45 minutes after arrival. Her death was due to heart attack complications.
There was no facility in the ambulance to plug the pump into an external power supply.