Tragic death of boy (2) in driveway of family home

No level of medical intervention could have saved the life of a toddler, who received fatal head injuries when he was run-over in the driveway of his home, an Inquest into his death heard.

Coroner for West Galway, Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin, was answering a query put by the boy’s devastated mother when he said that even if the accident had occurred outside Beaumont Hospital, the child would have not have survived such severe injuries.

Thomas O’Connor (29 months) of Derrydonnell North, Oranmore, was playing outside with his father, John, when the accident occurred on the evening of September 8 last year.

The child liked to play inside a spare vehicle parked in the driveway of their home, a Nissan Patrol jeep. The battery was dead, however, and he and his dad had fun pumping up a back wheel, and jump-starting it before the accident occurred.

John O’Connor said that he left his son playing in the driver’s seat of the Nissan, which had its bonnet left up, while he went to move his own Land Rover Discovery, which he had used to start the other vehicle.

He was driving forward when he felt a “bump” however, and jumped out immediately. His son was lying lifeless on the ground. He described the tragic accident as “life-changing” for himself and the child’s mother, Maeve.

She was inside the house at the time and when she heard John calling her name she ran out, carried the child to the garden and began CPR. Someone alerted a neighbour, Dr Joe Fitzgibbon, who found that the child had no heartbeat, and had no obvious injuries other than lacerations to his head.

Garda Declan O’Connor, who carried out a forensic examination of the scene, said that the rear wheel on the passenger side of the vehicle had hit the child.

He added that the height from ground to the bottom of the passenger window of the Land Rover was 110cm – Thomas measured 100cm, and would not have been seen by his dad as he had approached the vehicle.

Dr MacLoughlin said that no one would ever know for sure what had happened – that he may have been trying to get in the door of the Land Rover, or had tripped while walking towards it.

“We don’t know if the jeep hit him or he fell under the wheel – there are numerous ways he could have got into that position where the wheel went over him… we can speculate, but we will never know,” he said.

His mother asked the pathologist, Dr Margaret Sheehan, if her son’s life could have been saved had he been airlifted to hospital, but the answer was that death was instantaneous.

Dr MacLoughlin added: “Even if it happened in the grounds of Beaumont Hospital (the National Centre for Neurology), it wouldn’t have made a difference because his injuries were so severe.”

The Coroner returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, that the child had died from acute traumatic brain injury with multiple skull fractures, consequent with the impact of a jeep.

“The father of Thomas said it was a life-changing event for so many people,” he said.

“He was obviously a bright and intelligent child, who delighted in all things that all children delight in. What should have been a very happy day to see his father arrive home turned out to be a very tragic day for the family, in which Thomas lost his life accidentally.

“I can only imagine how his mother and father felt at the time, and the flashbacks that occurred for all the people who were there.

“The death of a child, particularly a violent death, touches everyone.”

John O’Connor thanked the emergency services, neighbours, and the Gardaí – particularly Garda Pat Flanagan – who had helped them through the tragic loss of their son.