A family that fought for over a decade to have their dad’s cause of death corrected say all they ever wanted was to “know what happened”.
Father-of-six Michael Daly was 64 when he died in 2010 following colorectal surgery at University Hospital Limerick.
An inquest in 2012 ruled that his death was due to natural causes, but his family feared a post-op leak and campaigned for a second inquest.
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It opened this week and ruled on Thursday that a new verdict of medical misadventure was the correct cause of death.
Michael’s son Michael Jnr has now spoken of the heartbroken family’s long campaign.
He said: “We would like to thank the coroner and his staff for all their diligence and hard work bringing this second inquest into our father’s death to a conclusion.
“We always knew as a family that if the full body of evidence was entered that the coroner would come to the verdict that he reached.
“As a family all we wanted to know was what exactly happened to our father and the circumstances around his passing.”
Limerick coroner John McNamara changed both the verdict and cause of death at the inquest two days ago.
The second inquest heard that Mr Daly’s son Michael Jnr discovered information through trawling through his late father’s medical notes, which had not been available at his dad’s post-mortem in April 2010.
The coroner’s updated verdict about the cause of death was based upon a review of the case by retired State pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy, who was commissioned as an independent expert witness.
Mr Daly developed rectal cancer in March 2007.
Mr McNamara said: “It’s clear from the evidence and from the records that he had multiple attendances and admissions and subsequent discharges from University Hospital Limerick throughout the period 2008, 2009, 2010.”
The inquest heard that CT scans taken of Mr Daly’s abdomen and pelvis could have resulted in an earlier defunctioning ileostomy procedure to prevent leakage.
Medical experts said it was found that a build-up of “infection had led to sepsis” which placed excessive demands “on Mr Daly’s heart”.
A colorectal surgeon and independent expert witness for the coroner, said that had a more “timely defunctional colostomy” being performed it “would have avoided [Mr Daly’s] death on the 7th of April 2010.”
Mr McNamara said it had been a “very complex inquest” and that neither of the two inquests had implied or proportioned blame or liability to any parties involved in Mr Daly’s care “who had all wished for him to get better”.
He said: “I will formally record the cause of death as per the formulation given by Prof Cassidy.”
Mr Daly’s widow Mary Daly said afterwards: “I just want to thank everyone for their kindness for my husband.
“I’m delighted with the verdict. It has been a long road and thank God it is finally over now.”
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