Drowned tourist struggled for life

Tourist drowned by water in tracheotomy tube


Inquest hears holidaymaker attempted to climb onto capsized boat, but it kept ‘flipping’

THE Romanian holidaymaker who died on Sunday, May 8, when his fishing boat was capsized by a wave drowned when water entered his lungs via a tracheotomy tube in his neck. This was the finding of the inquest into his death, held in Castlebar last Tuesday. Mircea Ungar, a 53-year-old computer technician from Sibiu in Romania, had a history of throat cancer, the inquest heard.
Mr Ungar’s boat capsized after it was hit by a six-foot wave on Lough Mask on Sunday, May 8. He had only arrived in Ireland the previous day and was on a fishing holiday with six friends. They were staying in Tourmakeady.
The inquest heard that while Mr Ungar did not go under the water after the boat capsized, he was unconscious when he reached the shore and was pronounced dead despite efforts to resuscitate him.
Dr Tamas Nemeth, who performed the post-mortem, revealed that the cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning and that the water entered his lungs through the tracheotomy tube.
Mr Ungar was in the fishing boat with another Romanian colleague, Mircea Gigea and the boatman John Bourke when the wave flooded the boat and capsized it. The incident occurred after 1.30pm on Sunday afternoon, when the boat was returning to the pier in Tourmakeady after the conditions on the lake started to deteriorate.
The three men, who were wearing lifejackets, held onto the side of the boat until they were rescued by another boat in the fishing party. However, there was concern for Mr Ungar when he was taken from the water.

High waves
The inquest heard that the group of six Romanian businessmen, all from the city of Sibiu, had arrived in Ireland on Saturday and were staying with Mr Bourke in Tourmakeady. Mr Bourke told the inquest that at 9am on Sunday morning he explained the safety requirements to the group and told them the best place to go.
Six of the men were due to go out in three boats, but one of the men decided not to go out and they went in two boats instead. One of the men, Nicolae Rahaian said that he and another friend tried to take the boat out of the harbour but initially could not because of the waves.
Mr Rahaian said that in his opinion he felt that Mr Bourke should have given them more information on the dangers they should expect, because none of them had experienced such high waves.
Mr Bourke explained that they had been fishing for 45 minutes to a hour when the waves started to get choppy, and when one of the men got sick they decided to go home.

Boat kept flipping
He explained a big wave came into the boat, filling two thirds of it. This was then followed by another wave, which he said was ‘six or seven feet’ and submerged them. The three men were knocked out of the boat, which turned upside down but stayed floating. He said Mr Ungar was holding onto the side of the boat and tried to climb up on it but it kept ‘flipping’. He said the lifejacket was holding him up but after a while he was not responding and he shouted on the other boat to take him out of the water.
Mr Bourke described the waves as ‘exceptional’ and said they were only ten minutes from the pier when they were struck by the wave.
Septimu Popa, who was in the other boat, said there was only 50 metres between the two boats and they followed Mr Bourke’s boat when he signalled on them to return home. He said the wind started getting stronger and they saw their friend’s boat turning upside down.

In water for 25 minutes
He said when they reached them they found it difficult to get the boat into position to pick them out of the water and were afraid of hitting them with the boat.
When they got Mr Ungar out of the water, he was not responding and there was no movement from him. He said he was about 25 minutes in the water.
Mr John O’Dwyer, Coroner for South Mayo recorded a verdict of accidental death and described what occurred as an unfortunate and tragic accident. He expressed sympathy to Mr Ungar’s family and to his friends who accompanied him on the fishing holiday.
Mr Popa, speaking on behalf of the other men, thanked the emergency services for their professionalism and also thanked Mr Bourke for all he did to save Mr Ungar. He said the help of the emergency services since the death had helped ease their pain.