AN ICU NURSE in Sligo General Hospital says she does not recall grabbing Michael Kivlehan’s elbow or telling him to “stop eavesdropping” on doctors discussing the care of his late wife Dhara Kivlehan six days before she died in September 2010.
Day four of the inquest into Ms Kivlehan’s death has also heard about a number of angry exchanges between her husband Michael and a Consultant Anaesthetist that was involved in the her care, ShannonsideFM’s Denise Canavan reports.
In evidence, Consultant Anaesthetist and Critical Care specialist Dr Seamus Crowley has denied that Dhara Kivlehan was in acute renal “failure” six days before she died – he says he believes she was suffering from an ongoing “acute kidney injury” but would not agree with the use of the word “failure” to describe it.
He described Michael Kivlehan as having a “confrontational and angry” demeanour during discussions over why his wife hadn’t been admitted to the ICU following her emergency caesarean.
Dr Crowley told the court that Mr Kivlehan had made frequent references to “not trusting doctors” having spent time at Kings College Hospital in London following an accident some years ago.
The consultant said he openly questioned what ICU care would have to offer over her current heightened level of care on the maternity ward and that when Mr Kivlehan accused him of being patronising, he said he was “simply thinking out loud”.
And he says he was “misled” by Mr Kivlehan’s attitude and was “provoked to ask” him “if he was a nurse or a paramedic”.
Earlier, in cross examination, ICU Nurse Siobhan Surlis denied telling Mr Kivlehan to stop “eavesdropping” on doctors while he was waiting to speak with them, saying she would never have used those words.
When family solicitor Roger Murray put Michael Kivlehan’s evidence to Nurse Surlis that she had grabbed his elbow, pulled him away from doctors and told how to “make himself useful”, she said she doesn’t recall but that she may have asked him to go to the shop.
Reporting by Denise Canavan. Published with permission of Shannonside, Longford, Roscommon and South Leitrim radio. See more at their website and follow them on Twitter @ShannonsideNews and @DeniseCanavan.
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