A Cork nursing home has offered “sincerest regrets” to the family of a 93-year-old man who died days after what was claimed was his tenth fall in the care home.
The letter of regret was read out in the High Court as the family of Noel O’Sullivan, Ballinlough, Cork settled on confidential terms a legal action over his death.
Father of five and grandfather to nine, Mr O’Sullivan a post-mortem later showed he died from a traumatic brain injury with brain swelling.
In the tenth and last fall at the Bon Secours Care Village on the Lee Road in Cork on October 12th, 2020, it was also claimed he fractured his hip and a wrist. He died six days later in hospital.
The settlement is without an admission of liability.
The family’s counsel Pearse Sreenan SC instructed by Cantillons Solicitors told the High Court the elderly man suffered a fall in his bedroom at Bon Secours Care village in the early house of October 12th, 2020.
He said in the space of eight months, Mr O’Sullivan had suffered nine other falls in the nursing home.
He said an expert care consultant on their side would have said there were alleged “multiple systemic failures” in the way Mr O’Sullivan was cared for. The details of the settlement are confidential. The case was before the High Court for the division of the €35,000 mental distress statutory payment only.
The Bon Secours Health System on behalf of the management and staff of the nursing home in a letter read to the court offered "sincerest regrets" to the O’Sullivan extended family on the tragic death of Noel.
It said it acknowledged that the experience was devastating “and that it continues to have a profound and lasting effect” on the family.
The letter signed by the Bon Secours chief nursing quality and patient officer Margaret McHugh added: “We appreciate that your experience with the nursing home here in this sad time did not meet expectations and we offer our sincerest regrets.”
In a statement outside court Mr O’ Sullivan’s daughter Regina Nolan said her father was a kind, caring man with a wonderful social conscience.
"He deserved better," she said.
She said while Bon Secours Care Village had conveyed regret she hoped that her father’s case serves as a turning point “that nursing home care must have thorough and regular independent evaluations.”
