{"id":297073,"date":"2026-01-22T05:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/297073\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T05:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:19:10","slug":"family-settles-high-court-case-against-st-vincents-hospital-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/297073\/","title":{"rendered":"Family settles High Court case against St Vincent\u2019s hospital \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family of a Co Mayo woman who died at St Vincent\u2019s hospital<\/a> in Dublin has settled a High Court<\/a> action.<\/p>\n

The family of Eilis Cronin-Walsh claimed a critical blood count result, which would have alerted doctors to significant bleeding having occurred, was not discovered for seven hours.<\/p>\n

A systems analysis review by the hospital later concluded that had the abnormal blood test result been acted upon when processed, it was likely the cardiovascular collapse of Ms Cronin-Walsh \u2013 who was recovering from surgery at St Vincent\u2019s \u2013 would have been avoided.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old, a mother of four from Ballina, Co Mayo, died at St Vincent\u2019s hospital on October 17th, 2021.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside the Four Courts on Wednesday, Ms Cronin-Walsh\u2019s son Kevin, flanked by his father James and brother Kyle, said the family was no longer whole after his mother\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe speak today not just for our own grief, but so that no other family has to endure what we have. We honour her memory, and we demand accountability,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEilis\u2019s life mattered. Her story must be heard. Her death must lead to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said his mother had died more than 200km from her family and home, with strangers by her side.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer loss has left a hole in our hearts that will never heal,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery day since, we have felt the emptiness she left behind \u2013 the birthdays, the milestones, the ordinary moments we can never share. The heartbreak and trauma of losing her in this way have shaped every part of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda who shot George Nkencho says it was \u2018absolutely necessary to use lethal force\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

James Walsh had earlier settled a High Court action over his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s barrister, Joe Brolly, instructed by solicitor David O\u2019Malley, told the court St Vincent\u2019s hospital made a public apology over Ms Cronin-Walsh\u2019s death last year at an inquest, at which a medical misadventure verdict<\/a> was returned. <\/p>\n

Ms Cronin-Walsh died from hypovolemic shock due to acute intra-abdominal bleeding, the inquest heard. She had undergone surgery nine days earlier to remove a pancreatic tumour as well as her gallbladder and spleen.<\/p>\n

It was claimed in the High Court proceedings that there was an alleged failure, when haemoglobin tests were repeated on October 17th, to convey the results to the treating clinicians. By this stage, it was claimed, Ms Cronin-Walsh was in a state of low-grade sepsis. <\/p>\n

Laboratory staff had after midday phoned the surgical ward to alert them to the fact the woman\u2019s haemoglobin had dropped to life-threatening levels. However, the call went unanswered and it is claimed no further attempts were made to contact the ward or the relevant clinicians.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Man accused of murdering Bruna Fonseca a \u2018coward\u2019 and \u2018arch manipulator\u2019, jury toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was not until 7pm that night that a nurse reviewing blood results alerted medical staff.<\/p>\n

It was claimed that this alleged catastrophic failure within the laboratory reporting system was instrumental in the rapid deterioration of Ms Cronin-Walsh.<\/p>\n

Noting the settlement and the division of the statutory \u20ac35,000 mental distress payment, Mr Justice Paul Coffey expressed his deepest sympathy to the Walsh family on their tragic loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of a Co Mayo woman who died at St Vincent\u2019s hospital in Dublin has settled a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,10476,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,104873,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-297073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-high-court","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-st-vincents-hospital","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115937067881557827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297073","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=297073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}