The family of a 46-year-old woman who died of a blood clot, nine days after a routine operation, have settled their action against two hospitals and a hospital consultant.
Karen McCabe died in August 2014 after returning to the Bon Secours hospital in Dublin in pain following an operation for removing varicose veins.
The hospital would not readmit her because readmission could only be done by a consultant and he was unavailable and uncontactable at the time.
Shauna McCabe was just 13 when she and her two younger brothers lost their amazing mother, Karen, almost eight years ago, she told the court.
Her father, Michael, lost the love of his life, she said. Her parents had been together for 32 years.
She told the court there had been every opportunity to help their mother but she was deprived of life saving treatment again and again and never came home.
Karen McCabe had an operation to remove varicose veins on 6 August 2014 at the Bon Secours Hospital in Dublin.
A week later she went back to the hospital suffering from severe pain. The non consultant doctor who examined her raised the possibility of a blood clot and wanted to admit her. But at the time there was a policy in place in the hospital that this could only be done by a consultant.
Ms McCabe's consultant, Professor Austin Leahy, was on holiday and could not be contacted the High Court was told, and no other consultant could be contacted either.
On 14 August, Ms McCabe was advised to attend Beaumont hospital. A clot-busting medication was prescribed there, but her family say there is no record of it being administered. They also claimed there was a delay in assessing her and admitting her. She suffered a cardiac arrest and died the following day.
Senior Counsel Bruce Antoniotti said the circumstances were particularly distressing for the family, as if Ms McCabe had been readmitted to the Bon Secours hospital as the junior doctor had wanted, she would have survived.
Ms McCabe's two sons who were nine and seven when their mother died were awarded settlements of almost €100,000 each, which had to be approved by the court due to their age.
Shauna McCabe said the family was comforted by the fact that policies had changed in the Bon Secours hospital in the wake of their mother's death. New arrangements had been put in place, she said, and never again would a patient be refused admission when a consultant was unavailable.
But she said, liability was not admitted by the defendants and the family say they did not receive an apology for what happened to their mother.
The settlement was reached after a long battle by their legal team but no amount of money would undo the mistakes made or bring their mother home.
She thanked the family's solicitors, Liston Flavin and their barristers, for their support and for allowing them to gain an understanding into what happened.
She said they hoped their mother's death had highlighted issues and would prevent similar mistakes from happening again.
