Mother who suffered Caesarian over ‘false’ twin settles case for €100,000

A WOMAN who had her abdomen unnecessarily cut open, after she was misdiagnosed as carrying twins, was compensated by over €100,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

Two years ago, the married mother-of-four gave birth to a son at St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny. When she failed to deliver a second child, as had been expected, an emergency Caesarean section was carried out, but no second baby was found.

An independent probe was headed by former Blood Transfusion Service Board chief executive Martin Hynes, but his highly critical report was not published.

Mr Hynes found that a trainee midwife carried out the ultrasound scan that first identified twins, late in the pregnancy. When the woman went into labour at the Kilkenny hospital, shortly afterwards, a second foetal heart failed to show up in electronic tests. After the emergency C-section, it emerged the woman was carrying only one baby.

The hospital attempted to settle the case for €40,000, but the couple made an out-of-court settlement of over €100,000, before the High Court trial.

The Hynes report was critical of the overall operation of the maternity unit at the hospital, and identified a litany of mistakes leading to the unnecessary operation.

An initial scan at the hospital, in July 2004, when the woman was 17 weeks’ pregnant, identified one foetus. Four months later, when she was admitted to the unit over blood pressure concerns, a scan carried out by the trainee midwife showed twins.

When the woman was admitted to give birth, seven cardiographs (CTG’s) tracked one baby’s heartbeat. But four ultrasound scans reported twins.

In a statement last night, the Health Service Executive expressed its regret, and said it was pleased the matter had been brought to a conclusion for the family.