Professor Ray McMahon was aged 68 when he was taken to a Manchester hospital with a fever on February 18 of this year.
He initially received treatment for a chest infection and was later moved to an intensive care unit.
After receiving a dose of the incorrect medication, he suffered a cardiac arrest and subsequently died, the BBC reported.
Prof McMahon was originally from the Lower Canal Road in Galway city and moved to the UK more than 40 years ago.
He was given the wrong drug by staff at Wythenshawe Hospital, which is part of Manchester University NHS Foundation trust, where he worked as a consultant histopathologist.
Professor Ray McMahon. Picture: RIP.ie
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The inquest into his death heard a “cascade of errors” led to him suffering an overdose of the wrong medication.
Prof McMahon is survived by his wife Claire and his three daughters, Aoife, Niamh and Sorcha.
The family said he was “failed” by the hospital where he died.
“I and my family would like to express our extreme disappointment, distress and sadness at what happened, especially within the trust that he’d worked for many years,” Ms McMahon said.
“Ray devoted his whole life to the NHS, but as a patient he was failed by Wythenshawe Hospital. To know that both system and individual failures caused his death is devastating.”
Having attended St Joseph’s College in Galway city – known to locals as ‘The Bish’ – Prof McMahon trained as a doctor in Galway before moving moving to the UK.
He was an uncle of retired Irish rugby international Ronan O’Gara.
“Our poor uncle,” O’Gara wrote in a post on X on Friday.
“A father, husband and grandad..Thinking of you Claire and the girls.”
A highly respected figure in his field, an obituary on the website of the British Division of the International Academy of Pathology (BDIAP) described Prof McMahon as “one of the most delightful and lovable characters in international pathology”.
In the months before his death, a lecture had been established in Prof McMahon’s name by the BDIAP in recognition of his many accomplishments.
“Whilst the timing is unfortunate, the establishment of that lecture will safeguard Ray’s legacy with the BDIAP, in particular,” the obituary read.
