‘Why did you let our suicidal son out?’

THE mother of a suicidal young man who was released from the Adult Acute Mental Health Unit at University Hospital Galway (UHG) – minutes before being rescued from the River Corrib – has made a heartfelt appeal for a review of the service being provided.

She told the Connacht Tribune that only for the bravery of another young man who had entered the Corrib to perform the rescue – and the actions of the emergency services – her son would have been dead.

The patient, who is in his mid-20s, had been treated at the Adult Acute Mental Health Unit (AAMHU) in the previous days, but according to his mother, was ‘not in a good place’ mentally when he was released onto the street.

The trauma began for the family on the Friday evening of July 30 last at around 3.50pm when the mother of the patient got a phone call to say that her son was being discharged from the unit 10 minutes later.

She happened to be near the hospital at the time and made her way over immediately.

“What we found out later is that a taxi had been called to bring him home, but the taxi driver had told them [hospital staff] that it wasn’t safe to carry him.

“I saw my son running away from the door of the unit and I called out, but I could do nothing more. I knew that he was gone and could do nothing else but ring the guards – an hour later he was taken from the water and was back in the Accident and Emergency unit of the hospital.

“We were within minutes of losing him. I knew that day it wasn’t safe to discharge him from the unit; my son also knew that; but yet the people in charge there, saw fit to let him out with just a taxi called,” the woman told the Connacht Tribune.

The man’s rescue on that Friday afternoon by Mullingar native and graduate of NUI Galway, Criodán Ó Murchú, which was reported in our sister newspaper, the Galway City Tribune, of August 6, shows how close the victim was to not making it.

On that evening, Criodán Ó Murchú, had been walking close to the Salmon Weir Bridge in the city when he saw a young man in the water who seemed to be in some distress with a T-shirt around his neck and a cut on the right side of his head.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.