Woman committed suicide after release from psychiatric hospital

A woman who was released from a mental hospital due to a legal difficulty took her own life by leaping from a balcony five days later.

Carrie Lyons (26) died at the Mater Hospital on July 19, 2006, hours after sustaining a severe head injury when she leaped from a third-floor balcony at flats in Morning Star Avenue, Dublin.

Three hospital assessments in the previous week had found she was not at risk of suicide.

Speaking outside the court, Ms Lyon's father, Patsy Lyons, expressed anger that his daughter had been released from hospital.

"I can't understand why she was released. She had lost a baby at two-and-a-half and that was the start of her problem.

"She was in the Central Mental Hospital for about three weeks. I didn't get word she was released.

"I'm sad and so angry that I wasn't informed she was released. I feel I should have been notified and I wasn't."

Dublin City Coroner's Court heard Ms Lyons had been detained at the Central Mental Hospital suffering from paranoid beliefs after being arrested for shoplifting.

But she was released from the facility on July 14 when the Prison Service informed the hospital that Ms Lyons had to be discharged because there was no bench warrant for her.

She was brought directly to the Mater Hospital where she was assessed by a psychiatrist who found she had no thoughts of self-harm or psychotic symptoms, the inquest head.

Ms Lyons, of Lurgan Street, Dublin 7, discharged herself while the doctor was on the phone to her grandmother.

She returned to A&E on July 15 and 17 and reassessments found she was neither suicidal nor homicidal. She was given an appointment for an out-patients' clinic on July 20.

Ms Lyons died on July 19 after she jumped from a balcony at Kevin Barry Flats, near the Regina Ceoli hostel where she was a resident.

She told staff at the hostel earlier that day she wanted to call an ambulance, but was persuaded to contact the community mental health nurse, who spoke with Ms Lyons and advised her to see her GP and to then come immediately to see her at Norman Connolly House, the court heard.

A nurse from the service had seen Ms Lyons at the hostel two days before her death and had been in contact with the hostel with regard to her condition earlier that day.

A resident in the area, Patrick Gilmore, told the court he was returning home with his daughter on July 19 when he saw a person with a leg and an arm hanging over the balcony of Kevin Barry Flats.

"Within a couple of seconds she got her other leg over and let go," he said.

The Dublin City Coroner Brian Farrell recorded a verdict of death by suicide.