Father-of-five with dementia died after accidentally pouring detergent on cornflakes instead of milk

A FATHER OF FIVE died after mistakenly pouring detergent into a bowl of corn flakes instead of milk, an inquest heard.

Tom McDonald was rushed to St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) in Dublin on March 9, 2023, after his daughter realized he had accidentally poisoned himself.

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“It was so quick – he was perfectly fine and suddenly he was gone,” his other daughter, Aisling O’Grady, said at a Dublin District Court session on Thursday, according to the Irish examiner.

Tom’s daughter Ailbhe McDonald had lived with her father for 19 months after her mother Viola moved into a care home, her written statement said.

The 92-year-old man from Dublin, Ireland, had been diagnosed with dementia five years earlier and the condition had noticeably worsened in the five months before his death.

Ailbhe said her father was confused about whether it was day or night and would often get up at odd times to eat.

She claimed to have heard him making corn flakes in the kitchen at around 3:30 am on the night of the fatal incident.

After 20 minutes had passed and she hadn’t heard him return to bed, Ailbhe went downstairs to check on him.

When she found him, Tom mentioned that he didn’t feel well after eating something.

Ailbhe then noticed purple detergent in the bowl of cornflakes and her father confirmed that he had eaten it.

The coroner, Crona Gallagher, heard Tom complain of still feeling unwell after vomiting up a small amount of food and drinking some water.

Ailbhe said her father was reluctant to go to hospital, but she called an ambulance 30 minutes later when he began complaining of a sore throat and cough.

The inquest heard that SVUHl doctors sedated the patient, but his condition worsened and he was pronounced dead at 8.50am.

Aisling then gave evidence that the severity of her father’s dementia often varied over the years.

But at the time of his death, the illness was getting worse.

Aisling said her father would have eaten anything he found in the fridge as he could no longer make food for himself.

Tom had allegedly eaten food from the refrigerator that was spoiled or out of date, she claimed.

WEAKENED SENSE OF TASTE

Although there were no major incidents in the kitchen, such as leaving the oven on, she said her family was becoming concerned about the difficulty of caring for her father at home.

Aisling said the detergent was not stored “anywhere near the fridge”.

“I didn’t think he would have drunk something he wasn’t familiar with,” she added.

She claimed that her father would have also been able to open the closet, even if it had a child lock.

Tom had a weakened sense of taste – a common symptom of dementia – at the time of his death.

This, Aisling said, may have been why he didn’t immediately realize he was eating detergent.

The inquest heard he was a retired member of the Defense Forces who served in the Congo.

Later in his career he became an accountant.

‘NO ANTIDOTE’

In a statement, John Legge, consultant in emergency medicine at SVUH, said Tom vomited in the ambulance on the way to hospital and was treated as a priority case in the emergency department.

However, he had breathing problems because the detergent affected his lungs as well as his stomach.

John said the National Poison Information Center was contacted but doctors were told there was no antidote for the detergent.

The consultant said Tom’s condition continued to worsen, meaning he was unlikely to survive.

The inquest heard that a post-mortem confirmed Tom had died from aspiration pneumonitis – an inflammatory reaction in the lungs resulting from ingesting the detergent.

Dr John said Tom’s dementia and heart disease also contributed to his death.

However, she said it was unlikely he would have died at that point if he had not ingested the detergent.

The coroner said most of the detergent bottles contained warnings about avoiding contact with eyes and skin and keeping them out of the reach of children.

Returning a verdict of accidental death, Dr John said she would bring the very unusual circumstances of Tom’s death to the attention of the relevant authorities.

The coroner said she had never come across such a death before.