Tragic Robbie suffered fatal brain damage after choking on cocktail sausage

A FOUR-year-old boy suffered fatal brain damage after choking on a cocktail sausage at his home three years ago, an inquest has heard.

- BY SEAN MCCARTHAIGH

Robert Power-O'Meara died at Children's Health Ireland in Temple Street on August 20, 2022.

The boy - who was known as Robbie - had been brought to the hospital for specialist care after originally receiving treatment at University Hospital Limerick where he had been rushed by ambulance.

His mother, Melissa Power, told a sitting of Dublin District Coroner's Court yesterday that the fatal incident occurred at their home on August 16, 2022 when she was in the kitchen with Robbie, while her older son, Bradley, was upstairs playing on a computer in his bedroom.

Ms Power said Robbie came over to her pointing at his throat while she was standing at the cooker at their home in O'Malley Park, Limerick, after she had given him sausages and chips.

She knew he had been eating a sausage so she tried putting her finger down his throat to make him get sick to get the food up.

Ms Power, who was accompanied by her partner and Robbie's father, Stephen O'Meara, gave evidence that her son had been on a waiting list to get his tonsils removed at the time.