O'Neill

In The Death of Stephen O'Neill I suggested his doctors, like soldiers in an army, simply by dint of following orders were capable of doing horrific things. At his inquest, the doctors from the Bluestone unit in Craigavon, where Stephen had gone for help, issued this astonishing statement. Southern Trust Health and Social Care Trust response to Healy Senior clinicians … [Read more...] about Orders from Nowhere that Kill

The Perfect Killing Machine claims people in medicine's highest echelons recognise what killed Stephen O'Neill but figure there's little they can do about it. This letter from Frank Atherton is the most extraordinary I've received from Government.  To see why you need to page down to the letter to which he is responding, a letter that offers his boss, Vaughan Gething, the … [Read more...] about I Recognise these Constraints

Somewhat like a lobster being slowly boiled as opposed to one dropped straight into boiling water, we have learned to co-exist with and ignore a Perfect Killing Machine in our midst which takes far more lives than the Covid pandemic - without it featuring anywhere in the news. This is a second post about Stephen O'Neill, after last weeks The Death of Stephen O'Neill and … [Read more...] about The Perfect Killing Machine

There will be a sequence of 7 weekly posts here about Stephen O'Neill and You that will also feature on Stephen's Voice Facebook page. This and next week's post feature videos about why everyone should help bring some good from Stephen O'Neill's death - not just because the same could easily happen you but also because his death was caused by decent and honourable people and … [Read more...] about The Death of Stephen O’Neill and You

Following their Spotlight on the Troubles series, BBC ran an astonishing Behind the Scenes program that must have left even those who thought they knew what happened in the Northern Irish Troubles doubt that they really knew what was going on.  The revelations turned the Troubles into a real life version of John Le Carre's Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy. But Northern Ireland … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Suicides: Behind the Scenes

I had no reply to the letter sent in September featured in last week’s post - Spotlight on the Politicians.  Michelle O’Neill had a nothing response to a letter she sent the Northern Ireland Office.  Vaughn Gething’s office (Wales Health Minister), when asked, acknowledged receipt of the letter but figured they had only been sent it for information – there was no need for them … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Suicides: Women and Knights (?)

This Continues the Spotlight on the Suicides series.  Astonished by the conclusion of Stephen O'Neill's inquest, I wrote to Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, copied to the Ministers of Health in Ireland, Simon Harris, in Wales Vaughan Gething, and in England Matt Hancock, along with the Danish MEP, Margrete Auken, the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly and Martina … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Suicides: The Politicians

This post continues the Spotlight on the Suicides series. There were 8 named people in Stephen O'Neill's medical record, or who made entries in the record between the time of first admission and his death.  He appears to have told most of them that in his view the sertraline he had been put on and took two doses of had had a disastrous effect on him.  There were likely up to … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Suicides: The Hospital Doctors

Continuing the Spotlight on the Suicides Series I have largely avoided naming names and will continue to avoid putting names in the frame but Stephen's family doctor's name, Dr Brannigan, is already in the public domain, and I've made it clear that the coroner thought highly of him and the whole point behind these posts is to show how even a decent doctor can end up in a … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Suicides: The Family Doctor

This continues the Spotlight on Suicides Series - The photograph is of Patrick McGurgan - the coroner.  Mr McGurgan appeared to be a decent man.  He treated everyone with courtesy and appeared to be listening.  His conclusions at the end of the inquest provoked a correspondence from me that will be posted later in this sequence in its entirety - there is nothing in this that … [Read more...] about Spotlight on the Suicides: The Coroner