HSE gets court orders to hospitalise man living in 'appalling squalor' and at risk of dying from sepsis
The President of the High Court has made orders allowing the HSE detain and admit to a hospital for medical treatment a man whose life is at risk from wallowing in his own faeces and urine.
The court heard the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, suffers from mental health conditions, and has spent several years as a patient in psychiatric facilities.
He is prone to violent outbursts and considered a risk to his family, women and vulnerable people, the court also heard.
He has been diagnosed as being emotionally unstable and having Factitious Disorder. He has also told doctors that he heard voices in his head telling him to harm others.
He was discharged from a hospital where he had been a voluntary patient to a facility within the community.
However, that placement broke down and the man, David Leahy Bl for the HSE told the court, has been living in appalling squalor for some weeks.
The man, who is aged in his fifties and the father of adult children, is now covered in his own urine and faeces had thrown food all over his residence and was not cleaning himself.
On one occasion, the man's carers had to remove and destroy the clothes the man had been wearing.
The condition of his skin was of such a concern to the HSE that it is feared that if he did not receive any treatment he would develop sepsis and die.
The man was refusing to cooperate with medical professionals and while he had acknowledged his physical condition was poor he was not accepting treatment and had told his doctors that "If I die, I die".
The man had been medically assessed by a number of professionals, which had been a difficult process. One consultant psychiatrist who assessed the man said he appeared to lack the capacity to comprehend his poor medical condition.
Counsel said the HSE wanted to bring the man to hospital where he will be treated, but have concerns over his volatile nature and his propensity to violence.
When he had been living abroad some years ago he was convicted of attempting to strangle his wife, and while he was in hospital he had assaulted female nurses attempting to care for him, counsel said.
On one occasion he kicked a pregnant female nurse in the groin, counsel said. He also had engaged in dirty protests when he had been a patient in psychiatric units.
As a result of the man's current state counsel said the HSE was seeking various orders, including ones allowing it to detain the man and admit him to hospital where he can receive treatment for his medical condition.
The HSE intends to seek an order making the man a ward of court.
Granting the orders Mr Justice Peter Kelly said he "did not envy" the task of those who would have to detain, restrain and move the man to hospital, nor the persons who would be responsible for his treatment in hospital.
The judge also appointed a guardian-at-litem to represent the man's interests and directed that an independent medical visitor submit a report to the court regarding the man's capacity to manage his own affairs.
The judge adjourned the matter to early next month.
