Dear Editor,
My brother Adam Loughnane passed away last month. His body was found in the Corrib on the afternoon of Tuesday the 11th of February 2025. What has haunted my family every day since his passing is the fact that just two hours before he was found in the river, he was in the A&E waiting room of University Hospital Galway presenting as suicidal.
He’d woken up that morning feeling numb. He’d contacted his mental health support worker and they made the decision to contact UHG. He packed an overnight bag in the belief he was going to be at the hospital for a few days. He believed they’d look after him. They told him to go through A&E. He’d been a patient at the mental health unit of UHG before. This was never referenced.
On arriving at the hospital, he told staff numerous times that he wanted to enter the river. They triaged him and told him to sit and wait. A woman with her own mental health issues saw him crying and in visible distress. She hugged him and they cried together. He approached another nurse but was asked to wait again. He hugged the woman who had been sitting with him, picked up his bag, and left the hospital. He wasn’t being monitored.
Within half an hour he was in the water.
At 6pm that evening while out putting up posters of my missing cat, I received a call from my mother. She was hysterical, I couldn’t understand her. A Guard took the phone and told me that my brother had been found in the river. I lost the ability to speak for a minute. Eventually I told the Guard I’d be over shortly. Half an hour later I was standing next to my mum and youngest brother identifying Adam, who was laid out in the same A&E he’d been in hours earlier. Only this time he was no longer breathing.
Adam did everything right. He reached out to the mental services and told them exactly how he was feeling. But the broken healthcare system let down yet another person at their most vulnerable.
Tara Coyne. Jamie Costello. Josephine Cloonan. And now Adam Loughnane.
These are just the cases where the family went public or where an action for negligence was taken against the hospital. There are undoubtedly many, many more.
How many more people have to die before a decision is made – at the top of the HSE and the Government – to fundamentally change how people who present as suicidal are treated?
Our loved ones shouldn’t have to go through A&E. There should be a separate general admission unit for those experiencing a mental health emergency.
Our loved ones should be believed when they say they want to end their lives. Their mental health records should be immediately referenced, while also securing and monitoring them.
This isn’t any one staff member’s fault. I’ve lost my brother to a system which is under-staffed, under-paid, and overworked.
We refuse to let his passing be in vain. No family should ever have to experience what we are currently living through. Adam will be the change needed to make our main hospital in Galway a safe place for those in their darkest hours.
Regards,
Joe Loughnane
Adam and Joe are both alumni of University of Galway
