The man’s medical technology, including sleep apnoea equipment, stopped working during Storm Éowyn – and he tragically passed away in front of his son shortly after
A man who was unable to use his sleep apnoea equipment after Storm Éowyn triggered power cuts in his area later died at his doctor’s appointment.
The Irish parliament was told that the man’s medical technology, including sleep apnoea equipment, stopped working during the storm and that he tragically passed away in front of his son, who had taken him to see a doctor. Sinn Fein TD for Mayo Rose Conway-Walsh said she was informed of the death by a constituent.
Ms Conway-Walsh told the Dail on Wednesday: “I was on Midwest Radio this morning and I said I have been frightened all week that something was going to happen, that somebody was going to die as a result of this in Mayo.”
She added: “Somebody from our own constituency rang me to describe to me how the equipment that his father was using couldn’t be used – the mattress, the sleep apnoea, the several other pieces of equipment – they couldn’t be (used). When he went then to take his father to the doctor, he died in front of him. And that is the tragedy of it, and that is how urgent this is.”
Storm Eowyn’s “historic winds” also killed Kacper Dudek, 20, after a tree fell on his car in Co Donegal during the morning of the storm.
Dudek was carrying out a U-turn after coming across a road accident moments earlier when the storm uprooted a tree – and crushed his car, on Friday, January 24. According to the Irish Mirror, Dudek learned was on the phone to his father when the tragedy occurred.
Sources say Kacper and a pal had been let out early from their night shift job and were driving home in a two-car convoy when the accident happened. Paying tribute to the young man, Ms Conway-Walsh said: “I do want to extend my condolences to the man’s family in Donegal that lost his life.”
On Tuesday, 25,000 people in Ireland were still without power and fewer than 300 were without water after Storm Eowyn damaged homes and infrastructure.
The storm claimed its first life in Scotland when a man was killed by “falling roof tiles” amidst the record gusts. The 49-year-old man was killed in Irvine as the tiles fell on him, before his family were informed by Police Scotland.
One neighbour said of the tragedy: “The first I heard was when the police knocked at the door about 10.30am. I heard it had happened at about 6.30am. They didn’t say much but I believe he was found lying under the archway. On any other morning I would have been out and would have seen him.”