By Laura Lynott
The Irish Daily Mail
ROSCOMMON, Ireland — A teenager who died as her ambulance took the wrong route during a two-and-a-half hour journey to hospital is ‘not the first and will not be the last’ to die this way, a friend has said.
Elaine Curley passed away as she travelled to a Galway hospital after she was seriously injured in a car crash in Roscommon on November 6, 2011.
Family friend John McDermott claimed that since the closure of Roscommon Hospital in July 2011, ‘a number of people have died on their way to Galway’ — because they have been forced to seek medical attention 120kilometres away.
Miss Curley, 19, suffered a heart attack during the ambulance journey and died only half an hour from the hospital.
Her parents — Bridie and Pádraig — are too traumatised to speak about their loss, but have asked Mr Mc-Dermott to speak on their behalf because ‘they don’t want to see anyone else die like this.’ Miss Curley’s family said they feel their daughter ‘didn’t even have a chance’.
Miss Curley, from Creggan, Co. Roscommon, had internal bleeding and died on her way to University College Hospital. A direct journey to the Galway facility should take one hour and 20 minutes but the ambulance crew took a wrong turn, which increased the journey, after a local person at the scene of the crash gave directions down a bog road.
The crew then diverted to Portiuncula in Ballinasloe, before again diverting to University College Hospital Galway.
Mr McDermott said: ‘It is too raw for the family still but we must have the height of respect for them because they wanted to highlight the problem with not having a hospital in Roscommon, so that others might be saved.
‘Elaine’s case is tragic, but this is the case for everyone in Roscommon who is a serious medical case — they need a hospital nearby, not more than 100kilometres away.
‘If you are critically ill, there is a real chance, like Elaine, you just aren’t going to make it, if you live in Roscommon.
‘Elaine’s family are heartbroken — she was very bright, full of energy, she was a young woman just starting out in life and they lost her when she was so young.
‘The family are letting the public know about this not for themselves, but in the hope they can stop this happening again. There was never any justification for the Government closing Roscommon Hospital.
‘And this case proves how much we need a local service.’ The ambulance service apologised to the family after the journey. Even a Garda escort on the final leg of the journey was not enough to save Miss Curley.
The National Ambulance Service said: ‘We acknowledge the route we took from the scene was not optimal, and we are sorry for that. There was limited access and egress (exit route) at the scene.
‘The advice received by the crew, from a person on the scene, was to take the route we took. The crew quickly discovered that this route was not optimal and contacted control for advice as to the best route to take so that they would have a smooth road in order to manage Elaine’s condition.’
However, they stated the teenager couldn’t have survived the heart attack she suffered, regardless of which hospital she was treated at.
Mr McDermott, who is a member of Roscommon Hospital Action Group, said the family wanted to draw attention to the fact that Roscommon people are more ‘at risk’ of ‘dying after a serious incident without a local hospital’. He added: ‘The emergency services are in Galway, and that’s just too far away.’
Miss Curley was injured in a single car crash at Tonamaddy, Co. Roscommon, at 10pm on November 6, 2011. A 999 call was made at 10.04pm and paramedics arrived at 10.20pm.
The ambulance left the scene of the crash, taking a back road to Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe. But at 11.15pm, Miss Curley suffered a heart attack in the ambulance. At midnight, the ambulance was near Portincula when the crew where directed by a doctor at Ballinasloe to go to UCHG in Galway.
An autopsy report stated Miss Curley died in the ambulance at 12.27am. At 12.57am, the ambulance finally arrived at the hospital.
In July 2011, the Department of Health denied that Minister Dr James Reilly used misleading figures about mortality rates at Roscommon Hospital to support the decision to downgrade the hospital’s accident and emergency unit.
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