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A CALIFORNIA MAN received a call to say that his son was alive, eleven days after he thought he’d buried him.
Orange County coroner’s officials had misidentified the body, the Orange County Register reported Friday.
The mix-up began on 6 May when a man was found dead behind a Verizon shop in the town of Fountain Valley.
Frank J Kerrigan, 82, of Wildomar, said he called the coroner’s office and was told the body was that of his son, Frank M Kerrigan, 57, who is mentally ill and had been living on the street.
When he asked whether he should identify the body, a woman said — apparently incorrectly — that identification had been made through fingerprints.
“When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them,” Kerrigan said. “If he wasn’t identified by fingerprints I would have been there in a heartbeat.”
Frank’s sister, 56-year-old Carole Meikle of Silverado, went to the spot where he died to leave a photo of him, a candle, flowers and rosary beads.
“It was a very difficult situation for me to stand at a pretty disturbing scene. There was blood and dirty blankets,” she said.
On 12 May, the family held a $20,000 funeral that drew about 50 people from as far away as Las Vegas and Washington state. Frank’s brother, John Kerrigan, gave the eulogy.
“We thought we were burying our brother,” Meikle said. “Someone else had a beautiful sendoff. It’s horrific.”
The body was interred at a cemetery in Orange about 150 feet from where Kerrigan’s wife is buried.
Earlier, in the funeral home, the grieving Kerrigan had looked at the man in the casket and touched his hair, convinced he was looking at his son for the last time. “I didn’t know what my dead son was going to look like,” he said.
Then came the 23 May phone call from Shinker. Kerrigan’s son was standing on the patio.
It was unclear how coroner’s officials misidentified the body.
Doug Easton, a lawyer hired by Kerrigan, said coroner’s officials apparently weren’t able to match the corpse’s fingerprints through a law enforcement database and instead identified Kerrigan by using an old driver’s license photo.
When the family told authorities he was alive, they tried the fingerprints again and on 1 June learned they matched someone else’s, Meikle said.
Easton said the coroner’s office provided the Kerrigan family with a name of that person, but the identification hasn’t been independently confirmed.
The lawyer said the family plans to sue, alleging authorities didn’t properly try to identify the body as Kerrigan’s son because he is homeless.
Sheriff’s Lieutenant Lane Lagaret, a spokesman for the coroner’s office, said the department extends regrets to the Kerrigan family “for any emotional stress caused as a result of this unfortunate incident”.
Lagaret said in a statement yesterday that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is conducting an internal investigation into the mix-up and that all identification policies and procedures will be reviewed to ensure no misidentifications occur in the future.
The mistaken death identification led the federal government to stop disability payments for her brother, Meikle said. The family is working to restore them.
Meikle said her brother chose to return to living on the street and doesn’t understand how hard the mistake was on his family.
“We lived through our worst fear,” she said. “He was dead on the sidewalk. We buried him. Those feelings don’t go away.”
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The mental health section of the HSE is under funded and it does need attention. But a “task force” will serve/help only those who get handed cosy jobs “directing” said task forces. Spend the money improving local amenities, parks, training programs etc. That well really help.
@Jonathan Whelan: The alienation of men by the state (taxpayer) funded Mothers Only social experiment is a factor not mentioned.
@Tom Molloy: Totally totally agree a good friend of mine went through hell trying to get access to his child and previously trying to make the relationship work. He was vilified while she got rent allowance, one parent family allowance. But there is the other side to the coin there is some wasters of fathers out there. What is done is done and can not be undone, just have to look to break the cycle that leads to people seeing no other choice.
I know a guy from Tallaght who tried to access mental services as he was consumed by anxiety and he was given an appointment to visit a HSE run clinic in Drimnagh. He went along and was given a survey to complete . Now this guy was in a bad way in his head but did not express any suicidal tendencies and because of this he was told there was nothing they could do for him as their resources were only for people at immediate risk of suicide. He felt suicidal leaving the building. This washing their hands of you has to stop now.
@Frank Cauldhame: People with mental troubles are the true vulnerable of society. Yet only pennys are spent on them compared to what is poured into dole and housing for fit able bodied people. Why is this? ? . Because the load mouth lay abouts in society get put up in the gresham and handed everything to keep the peace. The people with mental troubles there voices are too weak or discarded as the ravings of the crazy to get what they need.
@Jonathan Whelan: System needs to be over-hauled, my friend felt worse after being referred to psychiatric services by his GP. This may sound cynical but he should have pretended to be suicidal to avail of the serviced he really needed at the time.
I lost a lot of respect for Sean due to his backing of Ibmraim Halawa, but he is 100% correct on this matter, I live in Jobstown and can tell you’s it is like a epidemic and the HSE needs to get the finger out and start being serious about mental health
@Tony Groome: You’s? Wha?
@Tony Groome: Ibrahim was born and raised in Firhous where like Tallaght we’ve had our fair share of suicides. Without the campaign to bring him home he most certainly would have perished in the egyptian prison system one way or another. Shame on you for such a heartless comment
@Irish Political GIF: yeah he looked awful thin and malnourished when he got back to his “home” country
@Irish Political GIF: Halawa went to Egypt of his own free will and involved himself in a political demonstration. We all saw the video of him addressing the Muslim brotherhood crowd, he was arrested along with hundreds of others and was jailed for his activities. That’s what happens when you go looking for trouble,he is no innocent. If he was a native Irishman no Irish government representatives would have gone anywhere near him. It was an absolute disgrace the way he was treated like he did something wonderful and the continues lies by the media regarding the whole affair.
Mental health is the poor relation in the health service as it stands. The social deprivation in parts of Tallaght, the lack of jobs, lack of opportunity, lack of hope, the neglect by all agencies of the state are shameful. Put both together and the ingredients are there for the social disaster that is happening.
@Dave Doyle: well said. I know alot of people from the area, good working people. 20/30 years ago was a community feel on each street in jobstown, kingswood etc. Now half rented out or sold on every few years so community feel gone added to lack of jobs of meaning in the area
What is the correlation here? What will extra funds/resources do? How would it ‘prevent’ suicides?
@iohanx: Perhaps they could shoot people who exhibit suicidal tendencies.
@Adam Reid: that sounds more like a phenomenon you could believe was American.
It an epidemic all over Ireland, I know of at least 2 in the last couple of weeks, and that’s not to mention the amount of people who attempt suicide that don’t succeed. We have a major crisis here which is not been highlighted to a large extent ( partly due to the CC which still has a hold)
@Colette Kearns: why bring the church into this?? Very over simplistic view. I’d believe lack of stable jobs, substance problems, feeling lost or disconnected to those around you play a bigger role, coupled to the phenomenon of people having 500 friends on facebook yet going days without talking to someone and don’t even know there neighbours name.
@Colette Kearns: It has absolutely nothing to do with the catholic church, shame on you for your stupid remark. Who controls the Media, is it the CC? The government do not want it highlighted that so many mainly young men feel such despair and hopelessness that they would prefer death. Life is very very good for some people in this country and totally miserable for others. This government just turns a blind eye to underprivileged people. The situation could be helped with the proper resources.
@Jonathan Whelan: Why bring the church into it? I’ll tell you why, because they called it a “ mortal sin” & you you would go straight to hell, so that resulted in secrecy & suicide been swept under the carpet! Even to this day in some parts of the country.
Sean needs to look at the process of someone going to Tallaght Hospital and see how it all works! It’s an absolute Disgrace, you are put into a padded room in the middle of the A&E to wait for a 12 year old text book so called Doctor which might be a 12 hour wait and then they refare you to Mary merciers that will take a few weeks and when you get there the Doctor is so patronising and then tell you to snap out of it in so many words, give you a prescription for antidepressants and tell you to give them a chance to work! If you feel desperate out of hours to go to Tallaght A&E so could Sean Crowe please tell me why is this joke of a system causing all the Suicides, please feel free to get in touch with me
Regards Linda
THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE DIE FROM SUICIDE THAN IN ROAD CRASHES AND YET MORE MONEY IS PUMPED INTO ADVERTS, NCT’S AND POLICE CHECKS!!! WHY?… BECAUSE ONE GENERATES A LOT OF MONEY AND THE OTHER ONE CAUSTS MORE MONEY, TYPICAL OF THIS BACKWARD JOKE OF A COUNTRY, BRUSH IT UNDER THE CARPET AND HOPE IT WILL GO AWAY..
@Linda Hughes: I’ve often thought the same myself, unfortunately mental health is still being brushed under the carpet. Its all lip service from the government about change etc , as you correctly pointed out more people die by suicide than on Irish roads , but road safety is a revenue collection exercise.
The sick and vulnerable in society are being forgotten about by the powers that be more and more by the day, shame on them.
@Linda Hughes: they screw up in the U.K. the U.S. and god knows where else..on mental health which seems to be becoming a luxury…
Cluster of suicides of young people in our area of late & I’m aware of other vulnerable souls who are very high risk. There’s some great local initiatives by concerned locals but equally, it’s a national issue that merits a concise & urgent national response by government. The figures can be juggled, quantified & analysed until the cows come home but even one single suicide is too much & the ripple effect is beyond devastating & a lifetime burden for those affected.
WHAT a load of BS nine suicide deaths in south Dublin in 2016 the fact is if you die after a suicide attempt have a heart attack, organ failure etc it is not suicide this is how the HSE cover up the figures shocking to the core
@Linda Mulligan Conlon: would heart attack or organ failure be the main cause of the death? It’s all outlined at an inquest . Don’t think they can put down died by suicide if it was the actual heart attack that killed the person .
No ff or fg govt will ever put the necessary funding into health especially mental health. They will wheel out some of their more palatable tds onto tv to say its terrible and so sad but they wont do a damn#d thing about it. Until people vote for an alternative this will continue.
I wish I understood the media guidelines around reporting suicide a bit better. If a homeless person dies on the streets there is widespread coverage and occasionally even action taken but brushing suicide under the carpet by reporting it as a “sudden death” etc almost has the opposite effect. Why not report it as it is to compel the powers that be to take serious action on this terrible problem?
@Graham Moran: Because the powers that be who control the media do not want it publicized that life in this country is so bad for some unfortunate people that they would rather die. Mental health, depression, anxiety, addiction, these are all factors that could be helped with the proper resources, but there is no will from FG to help the underprivileged people in this society where the suicide rate is shocking.
@Tom&Gerry: look at this for example – happened last night. Service issue firearm found at scene. This will never get the attention that the tragic circumstances deserve. https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/investigation-underway-into-death-of-dublin-guard-36590729.html
@Graham Moran: Media guidelines are about reducing stigma and harm caused by irresponsible reporting.
One really simple example is the repeated use of the phrase “committed suicide”. If you step back and think about what that phrase actually means – we commit illegal/bad/wrong acts. Saying someone who has died as a result of overwhelming pain or mental illness “committed” is stigmatising, shaming and most importantly entirely inaccurate and does nothing to progress our understanding of this awful epidemic.
https://www.samaritans.org/your-community/samaritans-ireland-scotland-and-wales/samaritans-ireland/media-guidelines-ireland
@Sarah: appreciate the response Sarah. I’ve looked over the info you have supplied and it’s useful. While I understand the logic of not saying “committed suicide” I still think it’s important not to hide the cause of death if we want to address the issue, again just my opinion but I feel it will always remain taboo if reporting is curbed.
Here in Galway, a volunteer group set up water patrol, as so so many people have committed suicide by throwing themselves in to the corrib.Every second night search and rescue helicopter and Guards and firemen and lifeboats would be out searching for the person..so these Guys literally patrol the waterways every single night, and stop people from Jumping in. Sad part is even though they were saved, no where for them to get help, go to a&e and nothing.But those guys are just fantastic .
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