A man with serious depression who admitted himself to A&E at Wexford General Hospital, killed himself a day after he was discharged, for the second time in a fortnight, because he was not deemed a suicide risk.
Tom Nolan, 48 and single, one of seven children, took his own life on July 25th, 2013, at a prominent tourist location in Co. Wexford.
Tom, living in Enniscorthy, had experienced bouts of being down over the years, but not the tsunami of depression which overwhelmed him in the weeks before his death, a time when he gradually became quite distant with friends and family, which was unusual as he always had a chirpy attitude.
“On July 15th, that was his first attempt at taking his own life by an overdose. He was admitted to Wexford hospital on that date. He was incoherent when he was brought to Wexford, and left for seven hours on a trolley in Wexford,” explains his sister Colette.

Colette Nolan, sister of Tom.

“He was on medication, but he was not assessed because they said he wasn’t fit to be assessed. After seven hours he was transferred to a normal ward.”
Tom was seen by doctors in the hospital, who consulted, by phone, with a psychiatrist at Waterford Regional hospital. Despite his family’s concerns that their brother required immediate and ongoing counselling and appropriate treatment, Tom was released from Wexford hospital without having been examined in person by a psychiatrist.
“It’s box ticking: that is what happened at the hospital. Tom must have given them the answers that suited them. They asked Tom, who had tried to take his own life, if he thought he would do it again. He said ‘no’.” They forget that people can be so distraught when they have tried to kill themselves, but it hasn’t worked.”
Tom, before he was discharged, was advised to attend the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. outpatient facility at Carn House in St. John’s Hospital in Enniscorthy for counselling.
“They do have a respite ward but it is not there to help people in crisis situations,” says Colette. Tom, still enduring the torments of depression, was told by Carn House that, even though he had self-harmed, there was a three week waiting list before he could receive counselling. Within a week of being discharged from Wexford and after being informed that he could not see a counsellor, Tom was exhibiting signs of suicidal intent.
“On the Sunday night before he died, we stayed with him. He was very down and very depressed in himself. We brought him to the doctor on Monday, and the doctor said he would get him assessed again but told him it could take two weeks for the psychiatric assessment to come through,” says Colette.
“On the Tuesday he received a phone call to say he could get assessed on Wednesday in the doctor’s office. So I brought him to the doctor’s in Enniscorthy and he got a 20 minute assessment. The nurse who assessed him said that he might try counselling with It’s Good to Talk in Wexford.”
Tom’s family believe that even after his first suicide bid and, following his discharge from Wexford, his situation was not treated with the gravity it clearly warranted.
“He was pushed from pillar to post and that was on the Wednesday. On that day he drove himself to Wexford to It’s Good To talk. He had an appointment for 12, and at about 1.30 I got a phone call from the counsellor at It’s Good to Talk. He said to me that Tom couldn’t give him any assurances that he wouldn’t harm himself, and that he had called an ambulance for him and that the ambulance was going to transfer him to Wexford general hospital.”
Though Tom’s family had mixed feelings about Tom being readmitted to A&E, they were hopeful, because of the counsellor’s opinion, that he would at least be admitted to a secure environment.
Colette was, however, advised to use all of her persuasion to have Tom transferred to the psychiatric ward at Waterford from Wexford. The unit there only has 44 beds to cover both Waterford and Wexford, with an additional five in Newcastle (for North Wexford).
When Tom arrived at Wexford hospital, Colette was already in situ to keep him company. “I sat and talked to him and once again he was assessed by a scan nurse, whom I spoke to and I told her that Tom was not safe, and that he was crying out for help for nine days. Please have him admitted to Waterford,’ I said. So she talked to the consultant psychiatrist, again, over the phone, and between the two of them they decided that Tom was not a risk to himself, and that he did not need to be admitted to Waterford hospital and I was told that there were no beds available in Waterford.”
Tom was discharged on Wednesday afternoon from Wexford hospital, having clearly signaled his intent to self-harm to a counsellor in It’s Good to Talk and to staff in the hospital. A day later, he took his own life.
“On Thursday he had got his hair cut and brought my mother shopping in Wexford. My brother was talking to him in the back yard and at 3.15 he left home to go for a walk, and a drive, which he often done. I got to my mother and she said he had gone for a walk, that he needed time to himself.
“At 4.15 the alarm was raised, now at that time we didn’t know that the alarm had been raised, and the fire brigade was on its way to Oulart Hill. He had been to Oulart Hill two weeks earlier with mam but had never been there before that.” Thomas’s body was found in his burnt out car.
Colette fells that her brother would still be alive if he had received the proper medical support.
“I had seen what he had gone through and he tried to get help. He said ‘if only I could get in somewhere until the dark passage had passed.’ He was happy that it would pass and he could get on with his life.”
While it is HSE policy not to comment publicly on individual cases, Colette, who met with medical personnel involved with her brother, said they believed that in the space between Tom’s last assessment and taking his own life, “he seemed to be ok and not a risk to himself, that something triggered him to take his own life, and that basically is their stance.”