A Dublin woman weighing 630 pounds died tragically after falling and becoming stuck in her bathroom.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that the death of 53-year-old Mary MacMenamin on December 9, 2012 was the result of a cardiac event caused by her awkward positioning following a fall in the bathroom of her Dublin home.
The Irish Independent reports that the woman’s partner, Gerry Doyle, told the court that MacMenamin had struggled with her weight for years and suffered from a number of health issues including asthma and diabetes. He added that she was not very mobile and has stayed in bed for most of the time in the year before her death.
The morning of her death, MacMenamin called to Doyle for help because her walking stick had become stuck in the doorjamb of the bathroom. He tried to assist her, but she fell to the floor and her leg became stuck. She subsequently went unconscious, and Doyle rushed to their neighbor Donna O’Reilly for help.
O’Reilly told the inquest that she found MacMenamin slumped on the floor, face down to the side of the toilet with one arm raised above her head. O’Reilly called for an ambulance, telling them that they were unable to move MacMenamin.
She said at one point her partner tried to lift MacMenamin’s head and thought he heard her breathing.
After the paramedics arrived, they moved MacMenamin to the bedroom. She was pronounced dead at 1:10pm.
The Irish Independent reports that the post-mortem was carried out at St James’s Hospital by Dr Ramadan Shatwan who told the court that there was evidence of asphyxia and that her lungs were compressed as a result of pressure put on the diaphragm by the abdominal organs. He said MacMenamin’s heart was also twice the normal weight, which may also have been a factor in her death.
Dr Shatwan gave the cause of death as positional asphyxia on a background of morbid obesity in addition to an enlarged heart, which possibly contributed to an arrhythmia.
***http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/tragic-woman-died-after-getting-stuck-in-bathroom-inquest-hears-30012669.html

A Dublin woman weighing 630 pounds died tragically after falling and becoming stuck in her bathroom.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that the death of 53-year-old Mary MacMenamin on December 9, 2012 was the result of a cardiac event caused by her awkward positioning following a fall in the bathroom of her Dublin home.

The Irish Independent reports that the woman’s partner, Gerry Doyle, told the court that MacMenamin had struggled with her weight for years and suffered from a number of health issues including asthma and diabetes. He added that she was not very mobile and has stayed in bed for most of the time in the year before her death.

The morning of her death, MacMenamin called to Doyle for help because her walking stick had become stuck in the doorjamb of the bathroom. He tried to assist her, but she fell to the floor and her leg became stuck. She subsequently went unconscious, and Doyle rushed to their neighbor Donna O’Reilly for help.

O’Reilly told the inquest that she found MacMenamin slumped on the floor, face down to the side of the toilet with one arm raised above her head. O’Reilly called for an ambulance, telling them that they were unable to move MacMenamin.

She said at one point her partner tried to lift MacMenamin’s head and thought he heard her breathing.

After the paramedics arrived, they moved MacMenamin to the bedroom. She was pronounced dead at 1:10pm.

The Irish Independent reports that the post-mortem was carried out at St James’s Hospital by Dr Ramadan Shatwan who told the court that there was evidence of asphyxia and that her lungs were compressed as a result of pressure put on the diaphragm by the abdominal organs. He said MacMenamin’s heart was also twice the normal weight, which may also have been a factor in her death.

Dr Shatwan gave the cause of death as positional asphyxia on a background of morbid obesity in addition to an enlarged heart, which possibly contributed to an arrhythmia.