The family of a Donegal man who died in Altnagelvin Hospital has requested a new inquest more than five decades on.
John O’Sullivan, a customs officer from Fahan, was initially admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Derry hospital following a car crash in January 1973.
On arrival, medical professionals reportedly assessed his chances of recovery as “reasonable.”
However, Mr O’Sullivan died when his ventilator was disconnected.
Mr O’Sullivan’s family are seeking answers relating to the admission of two police officers from the then Royal Ulster Constabulary to the same ICU on the night of John’s accident.
His family are now requesting that the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, directs a coroner to conduct a fresh inquest into his death.
In a statement, reported by RTE News, they said that there are too many questions remaining: “Our family firstly, has endured five decades of guessing about the last moments of life for an adored son, cherished brother, loved husband and caring father, in his unaccounted death while recovering within the ICU at Altnagelvin Hospital in 1973, a needless death when secondly, his initial assessment looking so promising, he having so much more to offer, ever-more devastating for our late mother.
“We thirdly, only recently finding original inquest papers that were previously thought lost and our home being in the Republic of Ireland, we considered these questions on his death being limited.”
Read more: https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2024/0925/1471784-derry-hospital-inquest/
