Luke’s parents have ‘finished the fight’

CAVAN General Hospital has again apologised to the family of baby Luke Lyons Kelly, this time in the High Court but his family say have said it’s meaningless and their son should still be with them.

Luke died at the hospital on July 5, 2023, having developed pneumonia and despite having overcome open heart surgery weeks earlier. He was just weeks shy of his first birthday.

The infant son of Helena Lyons and Barry Kelly from Shantemon was born with a congenital heart defect called Shone’s disease for which he underwent major heart surgery at Crumlin Children’s Hospital twice in his short life.

After the second surgery, “the consultant, surgeons and staff were all happy with his operation and recovery. It was meant to be the start of our new life together,” Luke’s mum, Helena, said in her deposition to the inquest into Luke’s death last October.

On July 1, 2023, Luke’s dad, Barry, brought him to the Paediatric Assessment Unit at Cavan General Hospital because he was working hard to breathe, as the parents were always told that to bring Luke to the nearest hospital in the event he became ill.

The doctors at Crumlin had also left instructions in Luke’s hospital record for any medical professionals treating him to contact his heart team in Crumlin, but this did not happen.

From July 3 until his death on the morning of July 5, 2023, Luke’s condition deteriorated but there was no follow-up x-ray carried out on his lungs. Successive doctors failed to make contact with Crumlin, and he wasn’t seen by a consultant from the morning of July 4 until 6am the following day; they also failed to transfer him to hospital in Dublin on time.

The inquest heard that Luke had developed double pneumonia but, in his summary to the inquest, the family’s solicitor said the real cause of death was “an act or omission of act” and the coroner returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure.

Dr Mary Flanagan attached a number of recommendations to her verdict about the way “super” hospitals like Crumlin and “feeder” hospitals like Cavan General communicate over a patient’s care; the systems used by doctors for hand-over at shift changes; the education of all doctors on the escalation guidelines or PEWS system; and that intubation problems are flagged by super hospitals to feeder ones.

Luke’s parents sued the HSE in the High Court last week over the death of their son.

Counsel for the HSE read out an apology from the general manager of Cavan General Hospital which said: “I wish to reassure you and your family that the hospital strives at all times to optimise patient care and that we will continue to ensure the best practice is at the forefront of our clinical service to all patients.”

Luke’s family received the mandatory €35,000 as a mental distress solatium payment.

After they settled their high court case, Helena and Barry prepared the following statement for The Anglo-Celt: “Our son Luke should be four this July 18. He should be in playschool learning and growing, playing with his older siblings and being that special, strong, smiley little man that he was.

“But sadly, we will never see any of that or hear his laugh. Every day we live with this heartbreaking pain that grief has given us and we try to explain to Luke’s siblings why he died, why he’s gone.

“So no apology – once, twice a hundred times - is going to mean anything to us or our families or heal our broken hearts or help us try and grieve Luke who should be with us and who could have had the chance to fight if he had received the medical care he needed in time.

“He should have been moved to Crumlin he should have received higher respiratory support earlier and his condition should have been taken more seriously. This was all proven in a report after his death and at the inquest.

“The fact that his condition was not identified, and his level of care was not increased in time is extremely upsetting and frustrating and our anger will never leave us.

“At no stage from July 1 till July 5 were we told Luke had pneumonia.”

The family feel “let down” by some of the medical professionals in Cavan.

“We hope the recommendations outlined at the inquest will be and are in place in Cavan General Hospital and that they have learned from Luke’s tragic, heartbreaking death.

“We have finished our fighting for Luke now and I hope we have made him proud.”