The DPP directed there should be no prosecution taken against a hospital care attendant who was involved in an incident with an 80-year-old hospital patient who died eight days later, an inquest was told yesterday.
The jury returned a narrative verdict which noted the death of Bertie Bellew from bronchial pneumonia after "an incident" at St Mary's hospital, Drogheda, a HSE-run hospital for the elderly.
Mr Bellew, from Cherrybrook Drive, Drogheda had been an inpatient for five years when on September 5th, 2005, an incident occurred. Nurse Sandra Maguire told Drogheda Coroner's Court she was on duty that night and in charge of 24 male patients with the assistance of a care attendant.
At about 9.30pm she went into room five and saw a struggle between Mr Bellew and the attendant, who had Mr Bellew's right arm pulled back and was hitting him in the stomach.
She told the carer to stop and to "let go of Bertie". The attendant replied, "we didn't have to take this". She sent the attendant away and began to look after Mr Bellew who was very upset.
She said he was hyperventilating and sweating and vomited. She rang the doctor on call a short time later who examined him and told her to monitor Mr Bellew. He did not find any signs of physical injuries.
However, at 2.15am she rang the doctor again and because of the deterioration in his condition she was told to transfer him to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
When she asked the attendant what happened, she said the attendant told her, "I lost my temper". She said that was not good enough and she would be reporting the incident.
She told the coroner, Ronan Maguire, that before he was transferred she asked Mr Bellew what had happened. He said all he had wanted were his glasses and newspaper. "I asked him had it happened before and he said it had."
She told Bernard Gogarty, solicitor for the Bellew family, who asked if she saw the attendant hitting one blow, or more, that "it was a couple".
The next morning the attendant was put on paid leave. According to Evelyn Martin, the area co-ordinator for services for older people, the attendant said it was self defence, "only defending myself. Bertie reared up".
Mr Bellew died in the Lourdes hospital on September 13th.
The coroner's court heard that the attendant told gardaí of going to get Mr Bellew ready for bed. After a row over a newspaper,the attendant said Mr Bellew "lashed out his right arm" and described blocking it before in temper holding Mr Bellew's arm and then he "hit him once on the stomach".
In reply to the coroner at the inquest the attendant denied the assault, saying "I brought his arm down onto his stomach. I did not hit him."
A postmortem by the Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Mick Curtis, concluded Mr Bellew died from bronchial pneumonia. He added while not causing death "it was likely it was accelerated by or precipitated" by the incident.