Lessons not learned
Two more babies die in Portiuncula Galway Ireland. Our story again!
So I am driving to work this morning when I turn on the radio to hear a story that sounds very personal. Two babies die in Portiuncula hospital in Ballinasloe Galway. What? I think. This makes no sense! Why are they talking about our story now. You see we lost two babies in this very hospital. Even the details rang surprisingly true. Oxygen deprivation, failure to accurately read fetal heart monitoring. It could have been our story. But sadly it was about fresh cases two more babies passed away and five more who suffered oxygen deprivation.
Our daughter Asha passed away in 2008 at 30 weeks into our pregnancy. Not because we didn’t act soon enough. In fact my wife arrived at the hospital with discomfort hours earlier. But despite concerns raised by a midwife was told the fetal heart monitoring seemed ok, by a registrar. She was kept in for monitoring overnight. When she arrived distressed at the nurses station in the maternity ward she was sent back to her bed and told they were busy by a junior midwife and that someone would come take a look at her when they were ready. When she arrived back again this time bleeding it was too late.
I received a call during the night to inform me I should get to the hospital as quickly as possible. Soon after I arrived I was handed my beautiful daughter Asha who had passed away, due to a placental abruption. That night I sang her the songs I had sung for our older daughter, then 2 years old, and told her about her family.
The next morning I had the task of telling each member of our families what had happened. This event touched many hearts.
But with family and community support we came through and decided to try again. We even thought despite what had happened with the hospital surely lessons had been learned. After all we believed and still do that medical professionals do not enter medicine especially maternity care to do harm. So we returned to the hospital and received reassurances that our care would be extra focused given our previous circumstances.
In 2010 at full gestation 40 weeks we happily attended Portiuncula hospital this time nervous but sure we would have a happy outcome within hours. Labour was slow to progress and as the morning became the afternoon my wife Lorraine became more uncomfortable and concerned, as did I. The midwife in attendance also seemed to grow more concerned and called in the registrar. He looked repeatedly at the fetal heart trace. Paced the room alot. Looked more at the fetal heart trace. All the time assuring us things were fine. The midwife again raised concerns. He decided to take action and administered a drug “terbutaline” , read the shocking information on wikipedia here. The midwife at 20:00 finally took action and went above the head of the registrar and called the consultant on call. When the consultant arrived panic stations were taken and my wife was rushed for an emergency caesarean section.
The hospital paediatrician was called and struggled to bring breath back to our new born girl Amber. She had been deprived of oxygen for an unknown amount of time. within a few hours she was rushed to Holles street hospital in Dublin, Ireland’s national maternity hospital. There she received cooling treatment over three days to induce hypothermia in an effort to reduce brain damage. A week later to the day Amber passed away in our arms. She did this having had the same songs sung to her and the same stories told to her. This time our eldest daughter, at the time four years old, got to spend a short time with her sister in n.i.c.u. She smiled constantly and proudly at her baby sister. Then once again had to say goodbye.
A year later in 2011 we faced into a coroners court for our daughters inquest. The story was retold of the horror we went through. Doctors and midwives gave their stories. We told our story. Then we stated that all that mattered was that changes would be made to ensure other families did not suffer the same outcomes. The coroner wrote to the hospital and recommended a full review of practices in the maternity department of the hospital. We felt sure this would make a difference. After all these people, medical professionals, were not setting out to do harm.
So you can imagine my frustration and heart broken response when I heard our story told again on the radio. Only to realise this was a different two babies who had died in the same hospital, and five others sent to be treated in Dublin having been starved of oxygen. The news reports state :
“Several serious care deficiencies have been identified, including issues relating to foetal heartbeat monitoring during labour, the administration of drugs and delivery methods.”
Read the news for yourself here.
So I am telling our story of heartbreak. Why? Because our story not being heard by those who could implement change is like many other stories. I have spent most of today on social media answering responses from supporting friends and our extended community but also hearing from others who had similar tragedies in the same hospital. Stories that are frighteningly familiar. And no they are not the ones reported they are the so far untold stories.
Please share our story with the hope that those we entrust our care to will start taking more care of our babies and less care of their own jobs.
