The High Court has awarded €263,000 in damages to the husband of a woman who took her own life after being discharged from UHG for taking an overdose of pills.
Angelo Cloonan sued the HSE and Dr. Kishan Browne for negligence, claiming that they had not properly assessed his wife Josephine’s suicide risk when they discharged her.
Mrs. Cloonan had been admitted to University Hospital Galway on April 17, 2011 where she admitted to taking an overdose of prescribed medication.
She was seen by Dr. Browne, a psychiatrist who was working as a registrar at UHG at the time, and was discharged on April 18.
Her body was found in her home in Ballinfoyle the next day.
According to the Irish Times, Mr. Justice Michael Hanna said that Josephine “was not afforded a proper standard of care,”
He continued that if she had been admitted as an inpatient rather than being discharged then she, “probable she would not have taken her own life in the early hours of the morning of April 19th.”
The court heard that in the 18 months prior to this, Josie had suffered from depression related to a Garda investigation into allegations of sexual abuse from when she was a child.
She had already attempted to take her own life on a prior occasion.
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Read the full story at Galway Daily
