{"id":201975,"date":"2025-11-26T22:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T22:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/201975\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T22:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T22:57:09","slug":"teen-with-asthma-died-after-waiting-more-than-four-years-to-see-consultant-inquest-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/201975\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen with asthma died after waiting more than four years to see consultant, inquest hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s Health Ireland<\/a> (CHI) has apologised after a teenager with severe and poorly controlled asthma died following a severe attack while waiting years to see a specialist.<\/p>\n

Killian Burnett (15), from Finglas, Dublin, had four cancelled appointments between his first referral to see a respiratory medicine consultant in December 2017 and his death on March 22nd, 2022, at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.<\/p>\n

At an inquest at Dublin Coroner\u2019s Court on Wednesday, coroner Clare Keane recorded a verdict of death due to medical misadventure.<\/p>\n

Dr Keane said there had been \u201cmissed opportunities\u201d to treat his \u201cunstable, severe asthma\u201d.<\/p>\n

Welcoming improvements already made by CHI, she recommended consideration should be given to making it mandatory for any children presenting with a history of respiratory arrest due to asthma to be discussed with a senior clinician, with a referral made, or the patient\u2019s care escalated, if clinical conditions warranted it.<\/p>\n

The inquest heard how Killian and his parents had attended CHI at Temple Street<\/a>, Dublin, to see a specialist a month before his death without realising that, due to miscommunication, the appointment had been cancelled a short time previously.<\/p>\n

Evidence was also heard how the teenager, a student at New Cross College, Finglas, had been discharged home after a few hours on five occasions he had been brought by ambulance to Temple Street over the space of two months shortly before his death, including two occasions when he had lost consciousness.<\/p>\n

On the day of Killian\u2019s death, his father David Burnett recalled being alerted at 4am how his son was struggling to breathe and his face went pale and his lips went purple.<\/p>\n

He told the inquest his son had said: \u201cDad, please help me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something I relive every single day,\u201d Mr Burnett said.<\/p>\n

At the coroner\u2019s court CHI\u2019s clinical director for medical specialities, Michael Riordan, offered an \u201cunreserved apology\u201d to the family for \u201cacknowledged shortcomings\u201d in the care of the teenager\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

\"AA postmortem found Killian died as a result of respiratory failure due to a severe exacerbation of chronic asthma <\/p>\n

Dr Riordan told the inquest how a serious incident report on Killian\u2019s death had been circulated to all respiratory consultants, while waiting lists for such patients had been merged across all CHI hospitals to ensure \u201cequity of access\u201d based on clinical priority and time spent on waiting list.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo patients are currently waiting for more than two years on the respiratory waiting list,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Riordan said various referral pathways for children with asthma had been reviewed with reminders on how referrals could be updated if there was a change in their clinical status.<\/p>\n

The inquest heard Killian had been categorised as a \u201croutine\u201d case following his first referral \u2013 a status that never changed before his death.<\/p>\n

Dr Riordan said patients categorised as \u201csemi-urgent\u201d still faced \u201ca significant wait\u201d at the time to be seen by a specialist. <\/p>\n

He also said CHI had reviewed its management of waiting lists for respiratory patients, while the HSE had also commissioned a similar independent review.<\/p>\n

Dr Riordan said Killian\u2019s multiple attendances at the emergency department in Temple Street was a striking feature of the case.<\/p>\n

He outlined how CHI was working to see if its IT systems could trigger a warning for children who have multiple hospital attendances with asthma and other potentially serious recurrent illnesses.<\/p>\n

Conor Halpin SC, for CHI, issued an apology on behalf of CHI\u2019s chief executive, Lucy Nugent, and acknowledged, to the Burnett family, that \u201cthe experience was devastating for you\u201d.<\/p>\n

A postmortem found Killian had died as a result of respiratory failure due to a severe exacerbation of chronic asthma.<\/p>\n

The coroner said focal pneumonia was among the contributory factors.<\/p>\n

Following the hearing, Killian\u2019s eldest brother, Jordan, paid tribute to him and said the inquest was an important step to understanding everything that led up to his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years we tried our best to support him and to get him the help he needed. As his brother I saw him struggle in ways no child should ever have to and those memories will stay with me for the rest of my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKillian was never just a case number or a file. He was a bright, funny, loving boy who deserved to grow up and experience all the things life had to offer. He deserved a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI) has apologised after a teenager with severe and poorly controlled asthma died following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,111394,111395,18,61827,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-201975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-connolly-hospital","10":"tag-dublin-coroners-court","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-finglas","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115618477627660354","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}