Hospital puts new safeguards in place after baby death

NEW safeguards have been introduced at a hospital where a baby died after being delivered by caesarean section five weeks before her due date.

At an inquest in Dublin earlier this week, the mother, Therese Darcy Lampf, claimed she was repeatedly told by staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital that the wrong due date had been inserted in her medical file but had been reassured that her revised due date was the correct one.

It was only when her daughter, Jessica, was born on July 8, 2003 by elective caesarian section that staff realised that the child was premature and not full-term as had been expected.

The baby developed breathing problems but appeared to be making progress after being transferred to the hospital’s intensive care unit. However, she later developed multi- organ failure and died on July 18 at Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) North Eastern Area said new safeguards had been introduced with typed ultrasound reports now cross-checked by two midwives and signed before being filed.

The hospital also informs the woman of any change in the estimated delivery date that is included in her file.

Ms Darcy Lampf told Dublin City Coroner’s Court that she first realised she was pregnant with her third child in December 2002. Because she was unsure of the date of her last period, she was also uncertain as to the due date of the birth of her child.

After an ultrasound scan in February 2003, she was told she was 15 weeks pregnant and could expect to deliver her baby in mid-August. As she had delivered her previous two children by caesarian section, doctors planned she would deliver Jessica in the same way.

Ms Darcy Lampf said she noticed that the midwife had written the incorrect due date in her records after she returned to her home at Dundalk Road, Carlingford, Co Louth.

The incorrect date had been calculated using the estimated date of her last period instead of the computer-generated due date provided by the scan.

The inquest heard that if there is a conflict between the date generated by the scan and that calculated using the last period, the scan date is always relied on as it is considered the most authoritative.

Ms Darcy Lampf said that when she returned to the hospital for her check-up in March, she was reassured by the doctor that staff had realised her true due date was August 16.

During her next check up in May, the midwife examining her also said August was the correct date.

But when she next attended the hospital in June, a doctor said she was 37 weeks pregnant when she was actually 32 weeks pregnant. The doctor told her that her baby would be delivered the following month

Ms Darcy Lampf said the doctor said she was completely sure that the due date was July.

When she came in for a check up a week later, consultant obstetrician Dr Seosaimh Ó Coigligh said she was 38 weeks pregnant and would undergo the caesarian on July 8. Dr Ó Coigligh said he consulted the typed report of her first scan in February, not the computer print-out from the scan that would have revealed the true due date.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell adjourned the inquest to January 23.