The Health Service Executive has apologised to the family of a 19-year-old South Sligo woman who died from a brain haemorrhage after a delay in arranging a CT scan at Sligo University Hospital.
Lisa Niland had arrived by ambulance to the hospital having suffered a sudden, severe headache and vomiting while at a fast food restaurant three years ago.
A serious incident review carried out by the HSE found there was a failure to carry out a CT scan on time and a failure to recognise the deterioration in her condition overnight on 17 January 2017.
As medical staff were informing her family about her condition she suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated.
She was eventually transferred by helicopter to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin where surgery was performed to relieve pressure on her brain but she never recovered and died on 20 January 2017.
At the High Court today an apology from the hospital and the HSE to Lisa Niland’s parents, Gerry and Angela from Drimbane, Curry, Co Sligo, was read in court
The case went to mediation last week and as part of the settlement an apology was issued. The details of the settlement were not disclosed.
Outside court the Niland family solicitor Damian Tansey, S.C., welcomed the outcome of today’s High Court case.
He told Ocean FM that the apology given by the HSE to the Niland family is very important to them.
