Inquest told how pneumonia patient walked out of MUH on freezing night 

The son of a 69-year-old man who went missing from Mayo University Hospital (MUH) - and later drowned in the Castlebar River - has told an inquest that he was "scared out of his life" once he heard the news that his father had disappeared from the hospital in the early hours of the morning during freezing conditions.

On the first day of a scheduled three-day inquest into the death of Patrick Rowland from Laharadane, at Swinford Courthouse today (Tuesday), Cormac Rowland, son of the deceased, told the court about the moment his father contacted him to say he had walked out of the hospital.

“I was scared out of my life," he recalled. "This was the craziest thing. I had left a man in his hospital bed a half hour before yet I then received a call from him a half hour later telling me he was wandering around outside.” 

Mr Rowland said he wasn’t sure whether to believe his father, who was suffering from pneumonia and seemed to be in a confused state. His father had said on the phone that he wanted to leave the hospital, that the nurses were having a party there, that he wanted to go home and said would meet Cormac at Market Square.

Mr Rowland said he felt he needed to speak with those with "eyes on the ground" in the hospital to confirm his father’s account. However, it was 11 minutes later before anyone at MUH answered the phone and it was those 11 minutes, he said, “that keeps me awake at night, fills me with anger and stress, and has done nothing for my own health". 

"I feel an opportunity was taken from us, and that whatever small window we had, it was whipped completely from us and we couldn’t recover from it.” 

Up to 35 witnesses are slated to be called to give evidence at the inquest of Mr Rowland, who following a preliminary inquest had been found to have died from asphyxia due to drowning. Witnesses include members of the Rowland family, An Garda Síochána, staff from MUH as well as other medical personnel. However, Senior counsels representing both the Rowland family and MUH informed the coroner Patrick O'Connor that certain witnesses would not be attending court for various reasons, although their depositions could be read into the record.

Throughout the day, evidence was given that Mr Rowland suffered from two infections at the time he went missing, namely pneumonia as well as a urinary tract infection, and that he also suffered from type 2 diabetes and a serious heart problem that resulted in him having five stents fitted over the years. He had been taken by ambulance from his home in Lahardane in the early hours of January 15, 2023, where he was kept 42 hours in the Emergency Department before being admitted to the hospital and given a bed in the B ward.

Mr Rowland, who was said to have been dressed in just a vest, pyjama bottoms and slippers, with outside temperatures estimated at between minus 2 to minus 4 degrees, was subsequently found to be missing from the hospital in the early hours of January 16. His body was eventually found and retrieved two miles from Castlebar in the river at Ballynew, following extensive searches two days later.

CCTV footage around the town showed that Mr Rowland had walked between Ellison Street, Market Square and Shamble Street and that he had last been sighted walking in the Newport Road direction, where he was last seen standing at the bridge at the rear of the County Dry Cleaners in Market Square. A slipper believed to belong to Mr Rowland was subsequently found at the bridge, near the Educate Together School, which had a drop of approximately 25ft down to the river. Some time prior to this, the night porter at the TF Royal Theatre had seen a man of Mr Rowland’s description walking past the hotel in his pyjamas and noted that something was not right.

A total of nine witnesses gave evidence on Day 1 of the inquest, namely investigating Gda Padraig O’Connor; Sergeant Joan Grady; Kieran Roche, night porter at the TF Royal; Seamus Munnelly, brother-in-law of the deceased; Nuala Munnelly, sister of the deceased; Louisa Rowland, wife of the deceased; Cormac Rowland, son of the deceased, and Cormac’s wife, Nuala Dunne-Rowland. A statement was also read into the record from Eithne Rowland, as well as two statements later from medical staff involved in the case.

In his evidence, Seamus Munnelly expressed concern for Patrick Rowland’s mental state after saying that during a phonecall, Pat "was agitated and not making any sense", and had said: “Come up for me even if you have to take the guards”, and told him he had not had his oxygen mask on since lunchtime.

In her evidence, Louisa Rowland recalled that her late husband had woken at 3.30am on January 15 feeling unwell. He was coughing up blood and told his wife that he had "never felt so bad in my life". He had taken one Panadol and they were both frightened. After ringing Westdoc it was decided that due to the situation and her husband’s medical history and condition, to send an ambulance.

She said her husband seemed confused. In hospital, he was put on oxygen while on a trolley but Mr Rowland was subsequently found wandering the corridor without oxygen and told family members he could not sleep on the trolley as it was being moved constantly by staff and he was right beside the busy double doors. She added that her husband was "not making sense to any of us" and that "as far as I was concerned, once he was in the hospital he was being looked after by hospital staff". 

"The dogs on the street know that if you have an infection you are liable to be confused and suffering from delirium, so I automatically assumed, perhaps I should not have, that they would know that too,” she said.

Several references were made during the hearings to the fact that the phone at MUH rang out several times throughout the hours when Mr Rowland was missing as members of his family tried to obtain information. Even when he went missing, no staff at MUH would confirm any details regarding his whereabouts.

Cormac Rowland also paid tribute to his father, who he said in his work with Travenol and subsequently Volex as a Procurement Manager, would have dealt with budgets into the tens of millions and would have been headhunted to companies to troubleshoot buying and procurement policies.

He said: “He was a man of the utmost sense, a pillar of a man, a very sensible person who I would always ring if ever I needed advice, a wonderful sounding board.” 

He added: “We were extremely lucky as a family to have had a father like my father. We never wanted for anything and the emotional upbringing we got was second to none. I just think in all of this a good man died and that needs to be acknowledged.” 

The inquest continues tomorrow (Wednesday).