'To treat families like this is unforgivable': Bryonny Sainsbury's family still has no answers from HSE
Rip Sainsbury Picture: Bryonny Ie
The mother of a young woman whose death was ruled a result of medical misadventure says that she will not give up until her family receives a draft report into the circumstances of her death because her daughter “deserves answers”.
Alison Sainsbury’s daughter Bryonny, 25, suffered a serious brain injury after she was kicked in the head by a horse on August 26, 2021.
Bryonny, from Newtownforbes, Co Longford, died from her injuries in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital five days later, after originally being treated at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar.
An inquest into her death returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure.
Bryonny’s family are still waiting for the finalisation of a review into her death by the HSE, which the family expected to have been completed a year ago.
However, the family has now received correspondence from the Ireland East Hospital Group, issued to their solicitor, which says that while the report is at an advanced stage, it is subject to a legal review and is not completed. The letter says the review team has received legal advice saying the draft report cannot be shown to the family until the “required processes” under the Incident Management Framework 2020 “have been completed in full”.
Alison said: “We are not going to give up— – Bryonny deserves answers. To treat families like this is unforgivable, adding so much stress to the already life-changing road we have to travel now.”
Referencing the medical misadventure verdict in the inquest into the death of Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick, she said there have been no lessons learned since Bryonny’s case.
“People make mistakes but how many mistakes must they make before they learn,” she said. In issuing the inquest verdict into Bryonny's death in February, coroner Dr Crona Gallagher referenced concerns raised by Alison and her husband Chris about their daughter’s condition while in the Mullingar hospital, as well as querying why she had not been transferred to Beaumont sooner.
She also acknowledged that a consultant neurosurgeon from Beaumont had assessed scans taken of Bryonny as showing her condition was deteriorating.
The family had expected the review to be completed within 125 days.
Alison says that the family received a letter on October 13, 2021, less than two months after Bryonny’s death, informing them that the review team was being put together. The team was completed in December 2022.
The family had a meeting with the team on March 13 last year in a hotel in Mullingar and she says they were told they would receive a report within four weeks.
Alison said: “How much more time do they need? If some sort of changes are not made to help families that go through what we are going through, and what we go through for the rest of our lives, there is no empathy there.”
She said she and Chris did not sleep on Thursday night after receiving the letter.
“It makes you physically sick,” she said.
The HSE said: “The Ireland East Hospital Group (IEHG) has apologised to the family of Bryonny Sainsbury for the delay in completing the review of the care provided to Bryonny. The review is at an advanced stage, and it is a priority to complete it as soon as possible. IEHG will share it with the family at the earliest possible stage.”