Babies may have died after miscarriage misdiagnoses

TWO would-be mothers may have lost perfectly healthy babies and a third is suing the state as a direct result of the HSE miscarriage misdiagnosis scandal.

A report into revelations that women were wrongly told they miscarried has uncovered a litany of training failures.

The National Miscarriage Misdiagnosis Review has found that in the past five years alone, 18 women were incorrectly told at public and private hospitals that their pregnancies had terminated. A further six who suffered near-identical concerns before 2005, also insisted on their cases being examined.

Of these 24 cases, six women under-went invasive dilation and curettage (D&C) procedures after a flawed first ultrasound. Readings suggested they had lost their foetuses. Two subsequently lost their pregnancies. In eight cases, women were also given abortive drugs.

The investigation, led by British expert Professor William Ledger, has found:

* Six cases where women underwent inappropriately early ultrasounds which did not indicate a foetal heartbeat and led to a D&C. Later scans confirmed they were still pregnant. Two of the pregnancies did not go full term with a “possibility” this was linked to the procedure.

* One case where a woman had six separate ultrasounds before it was confirmed she was still pregnant.

* Serious flaws in the training of all types of doctors in making miscarriage diagnoses.