A medical clinic has apologised to the family of a woman who died 11 days after a minor operation five years ago.
In an apology read to the High Court, the Hermitage Medical Clinic in Lucan, Dublin, apologised to the family of Susan McGee, 52, from Rush, Co Dublin for her death and the failures in her care.
The court heard the family settled their action against the clinic and two consultant surgeons for €300,000.
Senior Counsel Simon Mills said Ms McGee underwent surgery for a hernia in July 2013 during which she suffered a small tear in her gut and needed antibiotics.
She had to be readmitted to hospital when she became unwell.
The court was told her surgeon, Dr Arnold Hill, was on a pre-arranged holiday and left her in the care of another surgeon, Colm Power, and a third doctor, who were to provide care for her over the weekend.
However, Mr Mills said the third doctor was not available as he was rostered to work in another hospital.
The second surgeon was not told about the deterioration in Ms McGee's condition as she was not being observed regularly and information was not being communicated by the nursing staff.
She deteriorated very significantly in the early hours of morning of Monday 22 July 2013 and, despite urgent surgery, she passed away.
The court heard the defendants admitted liability.
Ms McGee's daughter, Melissa Barry, and son John McGee, settled the case for €300,000 after mediation.
Mr Justice Robert Eagar agreed to hold the sum of €10,000 for Ms McGee's two grandchildren in court and pay out the rest of the money to the family.
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In an apology read to the court, the clinic and the two doctors extended their condolences to the family for her death and the failures in their care.
The Hermitage said it had put in place additional measures to address the lessons learned from the review of her care.
Afterwards, Ms Barry said their mother's death was totally avoidable and had a catastrophic effect on the family and she said she hoped no other family would have to go through what they had gone through.
The family's solicitor, Dermot McNamara, said it had taken five years to bring the case to the point where the defendants had no alternative but to admit responsibility and apologise.
He said that until recently they had denied any responsibility, which led the family to question whether the policy of open disclosure was actually practised by the medical profession.
The family said they are convinced Ms McGee would still be alive if there had been a proper handover of her care when her consultant went on holiday in July 2013.
Mr McNamara said the family feel there should be clear handover protocols in place in every hospital to ensure proper continuity of patient care.
