Elderly man 'suffered traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries' in fatal attack at Cork hospital
Retired A City At Last Following Died Cork, Widower Matthew January Mercy Incident In Shocking And Berrings, Who From The On Was Hospital 22 The Healy Co In Cork Farmer University
An elderly patient who was fatally assaulted in a Cork city hospital suffered traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries linked to blunt force trauma, an inquest has heard.
The horrific details emerged during the opening of the inquest into the death of Matthew Healy, 89, a retired farmer and widower from Berrings, in Co. Cork, who died following the shocking incident at the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork city on January 22 last.
Mr Healy was a patient in Room 2 of the hospital’s St Joseph’s Ward at the time of the attack.
Hospital staff intervened in a desperate bid to stop the attack. Members of the garda Armed Support Unit also attended the scene and assisted in the arrest a short time later of a man in his 30s, with an address on the northside of the city.
Despite the best efforts of medics who tended immediately to Mr Healy, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Thursday, Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn opened the inquest into Mr Healy’s death and heard evidence of the formal identification of his body, and details on the cause of death.
Assistant state pathologist, Dr Margot Bolster, said the body was formally identified by Garda Brendan Ryan at the city morgue on January 22 last and that she conducted an autopsy on the remains.
She said, in her opinion, the cause of death was cardiac arrest due to traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, complicated by aspiration of blood due to blunt force trauma.
Sgt Fergus Twomey said a male stands charged with the murder of Mr Healy and a trial date before a judge and jury is awaited. He applied for and was granted an adjournment of the inquest pending the conclusion of the criminal proceedings.
A member of Mr Healy’s family sat alone in the court for the hearing. Mr Comyn expressed his condolences to him and said, because criminal proceedings are underway, the coronial process has gone as far as it can go at this stage, and that by law, he must adjourn the hearing of an inquest until those criminal proceedings have concluded.
He said a death certificate will issue within six days.
The hospital launched an investigation into the incident, which it is understood included a review of the circumstances which led to the presence of Mr Healy's alleged attacker in the same ward. However, the hospital was not in a position on Thursday to provide an update on the status of its review.
Mr Healy's wife, Delia, died just weeks before this incident. The couple were pre-deceased by their daughter Christine, who died as a child. He is survived by his sons Vincent and Gerard, daughter Claire and eight grandchildren.