MINISTER for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster have issued “our deepest and unqualified apology” to the Sainsbury family over the death of Bryonny Sainsbury.

A young business woman from Newtownforbes, Sainsbury was admitted to hospital in Mullingar, having been crushed by a horse when assisting with a veterinary procedure on August 26th, 2021. She died from her injuries in Beaumont hospital less than a week later on August 31st, and an inquest into her death in 2024 found that some of the advice provided by staff at Beaumont was not followed and that she could have been saved had she been transferred to Beaumont sooner.

Minister MacNeill and Mr Gloster acknowledged that “the health system failed both Bryonny and her family” and that her family’s “courage and generosity” in participating in a review of her case has directly contributed to the development of the National Patient Safety Alert for Clinical Governance of Traumatic Brain Injury. Mr Gloster described this as an important national safeguard designed to strengthen patient safety.

Speaking after their meeting with the Minister and the CEO, Bryonny’s father Christopher said that maintaining positive changes to the HSE would be Bryonny’s legacy. Her mother Alison added: “We said to the Health Minister and the CEO of the HSE that this has got to be kept up on. It can’t just be ‘yes, we’re going to do this’, it’s got to be kept an eye on, and I’ll make sure of that.” She said that she hopes these changes will prevent other families from suffering as hers has, but that “it’s too late for Bryonny and that’s the hardest thing”.