Consultant admits failures at Savita inquest
The consultant at the centre of the treatment of Savita Halappanavar who died in University Hospital Galway after a miscarriage has admitted there were system failures in her care.
Savita was 17 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital in Galway on Sunday October 21 and died a week later.
Consultant obstetrician Dr Katherine Astbury told an inquest she was unaware of blood test abnormalities and said that the patient’s vitals should have been checked more regularly after her foetal membrane ruptured.
The senior medic was asked by Galway coroner Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin if the two aspects of Mrs Halappanavar’s care could be seen as system failures.
“Yes,” she replied.
Mrs Halappanavar, 31, delivered a dead baby daughter on Wednesday, October 24, and died the following Sunday of a heart attack caused by septicaemia due to E coli.
Dr Astbury, who is accused of refusing Mrs Halappanavar’s pleas because “Ireland is a Catholic country”, said she refused to terminate the pregnancy two days after she was admitted as there was not a risk to her life.
“She was well,” said Dr Astbury under cross examination.
“There was no risk to her life.
“If you need to give somebody medication to deliver and there’s a foetal heartbeat my understanding is that legally you are considered to be terminating.”
Dr Astbury has denied making the Catholic reference.
Meanwhile, medical charts detailing the treatment and condition of Mrs Halappanavar were not altered by an internal review team, the inquest heard.
The coroner was told that a curly bracket on records of the patient’s time in the hospital was not added by the hospital’s own investigators.
Dr Astbury was asked by barrister Eugene Gleeson, senior counsel for the Halappanavar family, about the remark that a medical abortion was not an option because Ireland is a ``Catholic country''.
“No, I did not mention religion,” she said.
“I did say I cannot terminate in this country because the foetus is still alive.”
Asked again about references to religion, Dr Astbury said: “No, I did not say that.”
The consultant was being cross-examined on a statement she gave the inquest yesterday.
Asked by Mr Gleeson if it would have been insensitive, uncivilised and wrong to use the word Catholic to the patient, Dr Astbury said: ``It's certainly not something I would say.''
The lawyer pressed the consultant on the issue of religion and she replied by asking for his definition of uncivilised.
Dr Astbury then said: “I think you would not give it as a reason why terminating would not be done because that is not the reason why it can’t be done.
“It would certainly be insensitive.”
Dr Astbury spoke in a loud, clear voice as she addressed the lawyer’s questions while widower Praveen Halappanavar, who claims she made the Catholic remark, sat with his friend, a Galway-based consultant Dr CVR Prasad, who read through documents during her evidence.
