Inquest hears scans failed to identify neurological issue

A verdict of medical misadventure has been recorded in the death of a mother of three young children who had suffered severe headaches for several weeks but was told by doctors that scans had failed to identify any neurological problem.

However, one consultant who subsequently reviewed two scans on the patient told an inquest that they showed signs of cerebral oedema (swelling of the brain).

Stacie Bailey, aged 33, a married mother of three from Whitefield Manor, Bettystown, Co Meath, died at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on 23 November 2023 shortly after undergoing emergency surgery to drain fluid from her brain.

The civil servant, who was originally from Skerries, Co Dublin, was the subject of an urgent transfer to Beaumont from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co Louth where she had collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest.