Family devastated by loss of husband and father following medical misadventure verdict
A family has spoken of their distress at the loss of a loving husband and father following a medical misadventure verdict at his inquest.
John Hackett (71) Kildonan Avenue, Finglas West, Dublin 11 died due to a blood clot four weeks after he underwent leg bypass surgery at the Mater Hospital on November 5, 2014.
His wife Ellen Hackett said his coat still hangs in the hall in the family home where the emptiness of his loss is ‘palpable,’
“You only have to put a foot in the door of our home to see the shock and devastation of John’s death. The emptiness is palpable. Life has stood still for us as a family since the day John died. I have lost my husband, my best friend and life companion of nearly fifty years,” Mrs Hackett said.
“I had no last words, no last goodbye... If love alone could have saved him, he never would have died,” Mrs Hackett said.
Speaking after the inquest, Solicitor for the family Mr Damien Tansey said that while Mr Hackett was on blood-thinning medication in the Mater, this did not continue following his transfer to Clontarf Orthopaedic Hospital on November 14.
"Even though he had the classic signs of an evolving embolism which ultimately killed him, he was never given heparin (in Clontarf) until the day he died," Mr Tansey said.
John Hackett was transferred from the Mater Hospital to the hospital in Clontarf nine days after his operation, Dublin Coroner’s Court. On the morning of his death on December 3, 2014, a locum doctor at Clontarf Hospital reviewed him as he was complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. Dr Suranga Senanayake ordered blood tests and a chest x-ray in a bid to identify the cause.
However, it was the results of a D-dimer test, used to help rule out the presence of a blood clot, that prompted the doctor’s decision to send the patient by ambulance to the Mater Hospital emergency department.
Mr Tansey described the test result at over 9,000 as ‘off the wall.’ The normal range is 0-500.
"I commenced Mr Hackett on Clexane prophylactically awaiting blood results as I was suspicious of a pulmonary embolism," Dr Sananayake said.
The inquest heard Mr Hackett had several risk factors including a previous heart attack, deep vein thrombosis, diabetes, he was a former smoker and he was obese. He collapsed and died at Clontarf Hospital before he could be transferred to the Mater. Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said the chest pain experienced by Mr Hackett two days before his death was consistent with an evolving embolism. The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism or blood clot.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of medical misadventure noting that due consideration should be given to multiple risk factors together with relative immobility when considering ongoing medication in such cases. The family have instituted civil proceedings against the HSE in relation to Mr Hackett's death.
