A 75-year-old Killarney man, who suffered a brain haemorrhage when he fell and hit his head visiting Spike Island, was left waiting almost two hours for an ambulance.
Edmond Horgan, a retired garda from Crosstown, Killarney, died at Cork University Hospital on July 8th, 2021, less than 24 hours after being brought there by ambulance.
The inquest into his death was held at Cork City Coroner’s Court yesterday.
75-year-old Edmond Horgan, a retired garda from Crosstown, Killarney suffered a brain haemorrhage, following a fall while walking up a gangway from a ferry to Spike Island in Cork Harbour shortly after 11am on July 7th, 2021.
The inquest into his death yesterday heard Mr Horgan died at Cork University Hospital less than 24 hours after being rushed there by ambulance.
Mr Horgan, who had been brought back to Cobh, was left waiting almost two hours for an ambulance, after two other ambulances were diverted to more high priority calls.
A paramedic said various tests were carried out, and Mr Horgan was conscious and lucid, but on the way to CUH, Mr Horgan began to lose consciousness and vomited.
He was transferred into the care of the CUH Resuscitation Team on arrival at the hospital, but had suffered a significant brain bleed and his condition deteriorated; he died the following day.
The same paramedic said diverting ambulances from one call to more high priority cases, as happened in Mr Horgan’s case, was a common occurrence within the National Ambulance Service, which he described as “completely under resourced”.
Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster said the cause of death was a traumatic subdural haemmorhage, with sub arachnoid haemorrhage, with a shortage of blood flow and oxygen to the brain.
