THE PARENTS of a 19-year-old Lithuanian teenager who died at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar the morning after being admitted with stomach pains told an inquest into her death yesterday they were “very concerned” about the medical treatment their daughter got.
Inga and Valdas Kriaciunatie, who live at Grattan Park, Claremorris, gave evidence through an interpreter on the opening day of an inquest into the death of their daughter, Justina, in the hospital on November 10th last. The couple told the coroner for south Mayo, John O’Dwyer, they were very upset at what had happened as they had lost an only daughter.
They met pathologist Dr Fadel Bennani about a month later and he told them it was a myocardial infarction, which they believed to be a heart attack.
“It seemed as if Dr Bennani was saying that the death was due to sudden adult death syndrome and Dr Bennani appears to believe that her death was caused by myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart.
“We cannot understand why her symptoms were not diagnosed earlier and why a healthy girl would die so quickly,” the couple, who came to Ireland about 4½ years ago as mushroom pickers, said in a statement read to the inquest.
“We do not want this to happen to any other family and we are very concerned about the treatment given to our daughter.”
Mr and Mrs Kriaciunatie said their daughter had always been healthy. She wanted to become a doctor, which was a possibility for her because of her ability.
They said Justina had called to her GP on November 9th last complaining of a pain in her stomach. The doctor gave her medication and told her to come back the next day if she still had problems.
Later in the evening she became very ill and her parents called an ambulance. Justina never had this problem before. After midnight they got a text from their daughter, who went in the ambulance to hospital on her own, saying everything was fine and they were thinking of letting her go the next day.
But at 7am they got a phone call from Justina saying she was feeling very bad and was getting transferred to a different ward. Then it appeared the phone was cut off. There had been no phone call from the hospital apart from Justina’s, the parents claim. When they arrived at the hospital they were told she had been admitted to the intensive care unit.
The inquest is continuing.