Ms Hickey was previously appointed as the committee representing the woman’s interests because the woman’s adult children disagreed on the nature of her care.
Counsel also raised issues about how a Do Not Resuscitate notice was previously put in place for the mother. While other siblings of her client seemed to have consent to that, her client was not aware of this “very distressing news” until this week. Dr Power had said, even without Covid-19, the woman’s conditions are such the DNR notice is appropriate. With Covid-19, he considered the case for resuscitation in the event of cardiac arrest was “even less” because it was more than likely the cause of such arrest would be viral pneumonia which would almost inevitably cause death in any event.
Mr McGuinness said Dr Power has some experience of people taking relatives from nursing homes and had said the challenges unfortunately were such they then seek to have the relative readmitted.