The death of a Korean woman at a direct provision centre in Cork is being treated as a personal tragedy, gardaí have confirmed.
The woman’s body was found at the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre ON 16th August 2016
The woman, in her 30s, is understood to have died in her bedroom at the centre in Cork city, on Tuesday evening. She had a son, aged six, who is now in the care of Túsla.
Her six-year-old son, who is now in the care of Túsla, the child and family agency, was playing outside the room before trying to enter the bedroom.
"They were knocking and knocking and nothing was happening. So they went to the security guard who let them in. The girl and the boy went in...
"He was crying and crying until social services came and they took him away last night. They are looking after him. There is no family here whatsoever."
It is said a service in memoriam of the Korean woman will be held by fellow residents at the direct provision centre, featuring a procession of people who will lay flowers at the block where she lived before her tragic death.
The inquest established the woman attended Dr Shirley Cotter at a GP practice in the city in September 2015.
In a report read into the record, Dr Cotter described her as a “quiet and soft-spoken lady”, and said she had attended several psychiatric sessions elsewhere but was not adhering to her medication regime.
She attended a locum at Dr Cotter’s practice on August 28, the morning of her death, but the inquest was told that her request for more pain medication was denied.
Denise Wallace, manager of the Kinsale Rd centre, told the coroner that she spoke to the woman several times in the days before her death, and that while she was aware of her mental difficulties, she said the woman didn’t really want to talk about it — only about her neck pain.
Ms Wallace said that when the woman returned from the GP on August 28, she tried to bring forward an appointment for her to see a pain specialist, but said it would be two weeks before she could be seen.
“I tried to reassure her. She seemed fine, bar the pain she was in,” said Ms Wallace.
She told the coroner that after she spoke to the woman on the morning of August 28, she thought she was doing well, that she was laughing and smiling, but that she was distraught about her neck pain.
The woman was last seen in the centre’s canteen at 1.06pm getting her dinner.
Security guard Derry Field, said he found her body in her room around 7.45pm, and raised the alarm. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 8.20pm.