Heartbroken parents of Longford woman Bryonny Sainsbury: ‘We had the trauma of watching our daughter die’

The family of Longford woman Bryonny Sainsbury, who died on August 30, 2021, following what were described as 'egregious errors', have received a formal apology from the HSE after significant issues were found with her medical care at Mullingar Hospital.

Bryonny (25), from Briskil, Newtownforbes, was seriously injured following an equestrian accident on August 26, 2021, and she was initially taken to Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar before being transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin days later.

A 2024 inquest into Bryonny's death heard some of the advice provided by staff at Beaumont to Mullingar was not followed and that she could have been saved if she had been transferred to Beaumont sooner.

Also read: Review into death of Longford woman Bryonny Sainsbury ‘should be released to family’

The apology was made at the High Court on Tuesday, January 20 as the family settled a case against the hospital over the failures in care given.

In the apology, hospital management offered a "sincere and unreserved apology" for the failures in care provided to Ms Sainsbury.

It acknowledged the "deep grief and enduring impact" her passing had on her family who cherished her.

Also read: 'One of a kind': Community in mourning following tragic death of popular Newtownforbes hairdresser

The statement added: "Please accept our heartfelt condolences on the passing of Bryonny. We are profoundly sorry for the distress and devastation you have experienced and we remain committed to ensuring that the lessons learned continue to inform and strengthen the care we provide."

Bryonny's mum Alison says the apology was meaningless. “We had the trauma of watching our daughter die. We begged for help and they didn't listen.”

Following a torturous four and a half year battle, Bryonny’s parents Chris and Alison Sainsbury, and her brothers Arron and Gregory, entered the High Court where they settled five actions against the HSE and received a public apology for what the organisation admitted was a series of “egregious errors” in their daughter’s care. 

Will not stop speaking out

Chris and Alison spoke about the traumatic loss of their beloved daughter, what happened during her time in Mullingar Regional Hospital, and why they will not stop speaking out against those responsible. 

Looking back on the evening of August 26, when Bryonny’s accident occurred, Chris recalled, “We had a phone call from Jeffrey, the owner of the livery (in Kenagh) where Bryonny had her horses. Jeffrey said, ‘can you come up here because Bryonny needs you for something?’ So we were none the wiser until we got there and saw the ambulance.

“By that time, Bryonny was on a stretcher, but you could see they had put a bandage around her head and she'd been bleeding profusely. She didn't really know who we were, she just kept saying, ‘sorry, I'm sorry.’ 

“It turns out Bryonny had been pushed by a horse. The horse became spooked during a procedure and flung Bryonny across the wash bay area and pushed against it. That caused the head trauma. 

“We ended up in Mullingar Hospital and that was on the 26th. So Bryonny went up to a ward after midnight and we spent three hours in the car outside as it was just coming out of COVID. They weren't giving us any information so every hour I was going in and asking ‘what's going on?’ but I wasn’t told anything.” 

Alison adds, “We were getting anxious and annoyed. I know she was 25, but when you see your daughter in that state, she wasn't compos mentis enough to take in what they were trying to say to her.

“Bryonny had undergone a CT scan by this time. One of the nurses said to us, ‘she's not too bad; she's not singing and dancing, but she's not too bad.’ So we thought she must be okay. Another person said to us she'd be out by Monday. They weren't treating it as serious at all and because they weren’t, we thought it wasn't (serious). This was on the Thursday. The following day, Chris, myself and Bryonny’s boyfriend went to see her but they wouldn't let me in. They just let her dad and her boyfriend in.” 

Chris continues, “There was no improvement in Bryonny. At that stage, she was vomiting. Her hair was still matted from the old blood. She was complaining about the neck brace hurting her but she was coming in and out of consciousness all the time. You couldn’t have a conversation with her because she was coming and going, holding her head.” 

Advice from Beaumont Hospital

Upon Bryonny’s admission to Mullingar hospital, staff sought advice from Beaumont Hospital’s consultant neurosurgeon, Professor Donncha O’Brien, and his team. After viewing the case details, Prof O’Brien returned a specific treatment plan for Bryonny. 

When addressing the inquest, Dr Muhammad Majeed - under whose care Bryonny had been admitted on the Thursday - maintained that because he went off duty for the weekend, her care became the responsibility of the consultant surgeon on call for the weekend, Dr Shahbaz Mansoor. Dr Mansoor, however, insisted that as Bryonny had been admitted under Dr Majeed, she was his responsibility. With no consultant handling Bryonny’s care from August 27 to 29, it was argued by the family’s legal team that no escalation in Bryonny’s care had occurred when her condition began to deteriorate. 

Alison adds, “He (Dr Majeed) said he went off duty without doing a changeover with his staff, so they didn't know about the care plan, hadn't done her bloods, or anything like that. They only did her bloods on the Thursday, and then when she was critically ill on Sunday morning, going into seizures, they did another blood test. Beaumont had instructed for them to be done regularly. By Saturday morning, people were telling us Bryonny should be in Beaumont. We begged quite a few times for her to be transferred, but all Mulllingar would say was, ‘she's not bad enough’.”

Alison recalls noticing a visible deterioration in Bryonny’s condition on the Saturday evening. By Sunday morning, the severity had escalated further. 

“An anesthesiologist was there mid-morning on Sunday when Bryonny was critical. I wanted her moved. If we knew then what we knew now, we would have taken her out of that bed, put her in the car and driven her up to Beaumont because she'd still be alive today.”

Adds Chris, “We thought we'd do more damage if we lifted her and carried her out, but we found out in the inquest that her injuries, they didn't need any surgery and would've healed on their own. She'd have been back to work in six to eight weeks. 

“There were 10 faults found in the review. We had a meeting with the management of Mulllingar Hospital and I started going through the 10 faults. There were stupid things like not doing her bloods. I said, ‘why weren't her bloods done?’ They just said, ‘We don’t know’. I asked, ‘Why didn't they contact Beaumont and let them know that she was deteriorating?’ Again, they said, ‘we don’t know’. So I asked, ‘why was she given the wrong medication?’ Same answer. ‘Don’t know’.” 

Heartbreaking revelation 

Arguably the most heartbreaking revelation to come from the inquest was that Bryonny could potentially have been saved had the CT scans taken on August 28 been sent to Prof O’Brien. The consultant neurosurgeon told the court that if he had seen those scans, he would have requested she be transferred to Beaumont Hospital. Instead, she remained in Mullingar, only being transferred to the ICU three days after being admitted, and then later that day transferred again, this time to Beaumont, by which point it was already too late as the swelling around the brain had intensified.     

“Professor O'Brien said that if he or his team had got to Bryonny by four o'clock that Sunday, it would have been reversible”, said Chris. “He was the only one who talked straight sense.” 

“On Sunday, I heard the nurses and the anaesthetist having a discussion about Bryonny. The nurses wanted her moved down to ICU because she needed one-to-one care but they had 16 or so other patients and were saying, ‘we can't do it, she needs to go down.’ 

“Bryonny was rolling around in the bed holding her head, screaming, jumping up, grabbing me, and then falling back down on the bed. Her body was starting to shut down because when we got her bloods back, her sodium level was critical. That's organ failure!” 

Added Alison, “roll on another hour and they still said she wasn't bad enough to go into ICU. We're begging them to move her to Beaumont but they said ‘no, she's not bad enough.’ That's all we got.” 

When Bryonny was eventually sent to Mullingar ICU on August 29, Chris explains it was the last time he and Alison would see her alive. 

“By the time they took her down to ICU in the afternoon, Bryonny was screaming with head pain. They were holding her on the trolley because she was in so much pain, and that's the last time we saw her. That's the last vision we have of our daughter alive.” 

Alison added, “We were allowed after about an hour to go into the ICU to see her. When we walked in, the doctors and nurses stood at the end of the bed and I just remember they couldn’t look at us. I don’t why but I opened Bryonny’s eyelid, and her eyes were just fixed and dilated. I said to Chris, this isn't good. They wanted her out. They wanted her gone to Beaumont.

“When Professor O’Brien was told on the Sunday, he was in Cork visiting his parents but he left and drove back to Beaumont to see what was going on. He stopped for diesel in Portlaoise where he rang his team and when they told him about her eyes being dilated, he knew it was too late.” 

Powerless to Act

Bryonny was transferred to Beaumont that day where she sadly passed away two days later. 

Prof O’Brien would later tell the inquest that Bryonny’s condition was “treatable” but that he had been “powerless to act” as Mullingar Hospital had not maintained communication with him regarding her case. 

The apology from the HSE last week, Alison says, was meaningless. 

“There needs to be accountability.”  She added, “We had the trauma of watching our daughter die. We begged for help and they didn't listen. Then we had the trauma of four and half years fighting for an apology. The whole system around accountability and how they treat families needs to change.”