An elderly man who suffered severe burns after collapsing next to a radiator in his West Dublin apartment may have been there for up to three days before being discovered, according to an investigation.
John Tuite (86) of Father Lemass Court, Ballyfermot Road, Ballyfermot died at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin on 20th November 2019 less than 12 hours after being discovered in his apartment in a managed independent housing complex for the elderly. by Dublin City Council.
An autopsy revealed that the father of three had suffered a severe heart attack and severe burns to 12% of his body from lying next to a radiator.
Autopsy results indicated that Mr. Power may have been lying on the floor in the hallway of his apartment for three days before he was found.
The coroner, Clare Keane, said it was not possible to definitively establish what had happened before, but believed it was more likely that Mr Power had collapsed from the heart attack before sustaining burns to his back, buttocks and hands, legs.
In a statement to Dublin District Coroner’s Court, a liaison officer at the complex, Mary Power, said she was worried something was wrong when she found the door to Mr Tuite’s apartment locked but not locked on 19 March. November 2019.
Ms. Power said that she found Mr. Tuite lying in the hallway of his apartment.
While he was still conscious, Ms. Power said that he could barely speak and assumed that he had fallen.
The inquest also heard evidence that an alerted ambulance crew found the retiree to be severely dehydrated.
Mr. Tuite said that his father was very independent and very mobile and that he regularly took a bus or Luas to get around the city.
She noted that his father was so active that he continued to work into his 80s in a local gravedigger’s office.
Ms. Tuite said she assumed her father was going to or from the bathroom when he collapsed in the hallway.
However, she also expressed concern that he had slipped from the water onto the floor, saying her father had had regular problems with an elderly neighbor in the apartment above leaving taps running with water overflowing from the ceiling.
Ms. Tuite said her family complained to the board about the problem, but “they didn’t want to hear about it,” reported RTE.
Although Ms. Tuite said it was possible her father slipped on water that then dried up in the heat, the investigation found that there was no evidence to suggest leaks at that time.
Garda Joanne Lyons, from Ballyfermot garda station, said investigators were unable to determine when he was last seen or spoken to.
Ms. Tuite said her family estimated that he may have been lying in the hallway for 3 or 4 days based on the stiff stubble on his face, as he was “he was always clean shaven,” reported RTE.
A report from a medical consultant at St. James Hospital, Nadim Akasheh, who treated Mr. Tuite, indicated that the patient was seriously ill at the time of admission.
Dr. Akasheh said that he suffered a major heart injury and irreversible tissue loss.
The coroner issued a narrative verdict on Mr. Tuite’s death, noting that it was due to a combination of heart attack and severe burns.
However, Dr Keane said the verdict had to reflect the fact that the order in which they occurred was “unclear”.
Expressing condolences to Mr Tuite’s family, the coroner said he appeared to be “an extraordinary individual” who had led “an extraordinary life”.
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