Man, 92, who mistakenly poured washing detergent over cornflakes died of poisoning, inquest told
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An elderly Dublin man died as a result of complications of poisoning himself after he mistakenly poured washing detergent on a bowl of cornflakes instead of milk, an inquest has heard.
Tom McDonald (92), a married father of five from The Elms, Donnybrook, Dublin, died on March 9, 2023, at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin where he had been brought after accidentally ingesting the detergent in the middle of the night.
A sitting of Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Thursday heard that Mr McDonald had suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
In a written statement, the deceased’s daughter Ailbhe McDonald said she had been living with her father for the previous 19 months after her mother, Viola, had moved to live in a nursing home.
The inquest heard that Mr McDonald had been diagnosed with dementia five years earlier with the condition getting noticeably worse in the five months before his death. Ms McDonald said her father would get very confused about time and whether it was day or night.
She said he would often get up in the middle of the night for food and she heard him getting cornflakes in the kitchen at around 3.30am on the day of the fatal incident.
She checked on him after 20 minutes when she had not heard him returning to bed and found him downstairs saying he felt unwell after having eaten something. Ms McDonald said she then noticed some purple detergent in the bowl of cornflakes before her father confirmed that he had eaten its contents.
The coroner, Cróna Gallagher, heard Mr McDonald complained of still feeling unwell after vomiting up a small amount of food and drinking some water. Ms McDonald said her father was reluctant to go to hospital but she called an ambulance about 30 minutes later as he was complaining about a sore throat and having to cough.
The inquest heard doctors at St Vincent’s University Hospital sedated the patient but his condition deteriorated and he was pronounced dead at 8.50am.
Another daughter of the deceased, Aisling O’Grady, gave evidence that her father’s condition with dementia and Alzheimer’s fluctuated with good and bad periods. However, Ms O’Grady said it had been getting worse around the time of her father’s death.
In response to questions from Dr Gallagher, she said her father would have eaten anything he found in the fridge as he was no longer able to cook for himself. Ms O’Grady said her father would even have eaten items in the fridge that would have gone off or been out of date.
While there had been no dangerous incidents of any type such as leaving a cooker or oven on, she said her family were getting concerned at the time over how it was becoming more difficult to care for their father at home.
Ms O’Grady said the detergent he had taken was stored in a low cupboard next to a dishwasher and washing machine that was “nowhere near the fridge”. “I didn’t think he would have drunk something he was not familiar with,” she added.
She claimed her father would also have been well able to open the cupboard if it had been fitted with a child lock. Ms O’Grady said her father’s sense of taste had also weakened which might have explained why he was not immediately aware that he had poured detergent on his cornflakes.
The inquest heard Mr McDonald was a retired member of the Defence Forces who had served in the Congo, but who had also worked as an accountant in the later part of his career.
Ms O’Grady admitted she had been shocked by the speed at which her father had died after swallowing the detergent. “It was so quick. He was perfectly well and then all of a sudden he is gone,” she recalled.
In a statement, a consultant in emergency medicine at SVUH, John Legge, said Mr McDonald had vomited in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and was treated as a priority case in the emergency department.
However, he had problems with his breathing as the detergent had affected his lungs as well as his stomach. Dr Legge said advice was sought from the National Poisons Information Centre but doctors were informed that there was no antidote and they continued with care to support the patient’s breathing.
The consultant said Mr McDonald’s condition continued to deteriorate which meant it was unlikely that he would survive.
The inquest heard that a postmortem examination confirmed that Mr McDonald had died from aspiration pneumonitis — an inflammatory reaction in the lungs which had resulted from the ingestion of the detergent.
Dr Gallagher said the deceased’s dementia and heart disease were also contributory factors in his death. However, she stated he was unlikely to have died at that time if he had not ingested the detergent.
The coroner noted that most bottles of washing detergent contained warnings about avoiding contact with the eyes and skin as well as being kept away from children.
Returning a verdict of accidental death, Dr Gallagher said she would bring the very unusual circumstances of Mr McDonald’s death to the attention of the relevant authorities. The coroner said she had never come across such a death before.
Dr Gallagher said bodies like the HSE and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland may already be aware of such a risk but it was also something that families providing care to people should know about.