Inquest hears cancer patient died from rare complications
Saturday August 18 2007
A woman who underwent a successful operation to remove her stomach due to cancer died hours later following rare postoperative complications, an inquest heard yesterday.
Mrs Noreen Dempsey (59) of Oakview, Santry died at Dublin's Mater hospital on November 28, 2006, after an operation for stomach cancer, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard.
An inquest into her death heard that Mrs Dempsey, who had been diagnosed with cancer of the stomach and of the right lung, underwent a successful gastrectomy followed by an operation to insert a feeding mechanism on November 28.
She developed serious complications and died following a cardiac arrest. An inquest into her death found that Mrs Dempsey died from the combined effects of blood in her pericardial cavity (a fluid filled cavity around the heart,) and of blood clots in her lungs, following an operation for cancer.
Mrs Dempsey suffered a cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 10.45pm on November 28, 2006.
Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell said it was a complicated case and said, although it was somewhat speculative, he believed that blood clots in the lungs may have precipitated the sequence of events and put pressure on Mrs Dempsey's heart, which in turn caused the escape of blood into the pericardial cavity, and causing cardiac arrest.
Dr Farrell said he was satisfied that medical misadventure was not an issue and returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.
Consultant surgeon at Dublin's Mater hospital, Gerry McEntee told the court that he performed the two operations on Mrs Dempsey, who had underwent an operation to remove a tumour from her right lung on November 28.
At 10pm that evening Mr McEntee received a call from the hospital saying Mrs Dempsey's blood pressure had dropped.
Mr McEntee performed an emergency laparotomy on Mrs Dempsey that night to rule out any abdominal bleeding, and although he discovered 500 millilitres of blood in her peritoneal cavity, Mr McEntee said this was consistent with recent surgery.
"I couldn't explain her deterioration and thought she might have had a myocardial infarct (heart attack)," he told the court.
