Andrew Carey
A MOTHER whose newborn baby died in her arms at the University Maternity Hospital in Limerick said an apology from the HSE six years later for the torment, pain and upset caused by medical negligence means nothing to her.
Caoimhe Mulcair, was a much loved baby – even before she was born, her mother Joan Mulcair told Limerick Coroners Court this Tuesday.
Joan and her husband John had been trying for some time to begin a family and she eventually underwent IVF treatment.
Their baby was born and subsequently died on February 11, 2009 .
For almost six years, the HSE denied in relation to baby Caoimhe’s death until an out-of-court settlement was made last December with an admission of clinical negligence.
No apology was offered at the time.
This Monday, 2,406 days after their loss, the HSE handed the Mulcairs a letter of apology.
The letter was read out by a solicitor on behalf UL Hospitals Group chief executive Professor Colette Cowan, who apologised for “the failings in care” provided to Joan and Caoimhe Mulcair and the “subsequent consequential upset distress and grief” the family experienced.
The inquest had heard that Joan Mulcair (44) had a healthy pregnancy up until her baby was born.
She was taken to the labour ward after she was admitted to University Maternity Hospital Limerick, with severe pains at 39 weeks into her pregnancy, and traces revealed decelerations of her baby’s heart rate.
Dr Mary Higgins accepted the decelerations were not normal but added they had to be considered in an overall context where the mother was in advanced stages of labour. She said this wasn’t uncommon.
The decelerations weren’t bad enough to warrant an immediate delivery and she “genuinely never expected” what happened when baby Caoimhe was born.
Dr Higgins, who was visibly upset during her evidence, accepted that low ph levels taken afterwards indicated acidosis, which can occur if the baby is deprived of oxygen in labour, but said this was a “retrospective diagnosis, which I wish I had earlier”.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Jamaleddin Abujennah said he was told that Caoimhe was born with her umbilical chord around her neck.
However Dr Higgins, who performed a vacuum delivery, said she never saw this.
Dr Abujennah said Caoimhe was pale and gasping for breath and was immediately transferred to the special care neonatal unit.
Despite all measure of resuscitation, the baby remained in poor condition, and her parents were called to the special care unit.
In her evidence Joan Mulcair described the “nightmare” of holding her new born baby who was just 27 minutes old, and being told she was dying in her arms.
“We couldn’t believe this was happening. The hurt and sorrow overcomes you. You’re never the same person again,” she said adding that she couldn’t understand why this was happening in a hospital.
Pathologist Dr Peter Faul who carried out the post mortem on Caoimhe Mulcair, said it was an unexplained very early neonatal death and no anatomical cause of death could be established.
At the time of baby Caoimhe’s death, her parents contacted an independent UK based obstetrician, Edward Shaxted, who reported that the baby became progressively deprived of oxygen during the last hour and a half of birth. However it was likely that she would have survived.
Speaking after the inquest jury returned a verdict of medical misadventure, Caoimhe’s father John Mulcair (44) broke down as he described his family’s suffering over the past six and a half years.
“It’s a very sad day for us but it’s the end of six and a half years of suffering and sadness and we just hope now that Caoimhe should rest in peace and that she knows that we love her and that we’ve done everything possible we could for her.
“We hope that the HSE learns from their mistakes and that no other family has to go through what we went through because it’s terrible, and it’s not fair.”
