Woman awarded €170k after stillbirth

A mother whose baby was stillborn after she was transferred 114km, from a Kerry hospital to Cork, in an ambulance that did not have the necessary blood on board, has been awarded €170,000 damages by the High Court.

What had happened to Fiona Ní Chonchubhair and her husband Stephen Cotter during this second pregnancy was “a disaster”, “the stuff of nightmares”, and must be “burnt into their memories as an example of the most disastrous incompetence”, Mr Justice Sean Ryan said yesterday.

The High Court heard during the two-day action that when the ambulance, sent from Kerry General Hospital in Tralee on a 114km, two-hour trip to Cork University Hospital, arrived with Ms Ní Chonchubhair, who was nearly 32 weeks pregnant and bleeding internally, it took another 15 or 20 minutes for the crew to locate the emergency department.

It was claimed that had the ambulance been equipped with blood and staff to administer it, Ms Ní Chonchubhair’s second child Aodh would have survived and she herself would not have suffered the shock, trauma, and anger that resulted from the death.

Ms Ní Chonchubhair, aged 36, of Countess Rd, Killarney, Co Kerry, was operated on and received six units of blood to replace what she had lost, but it was too late for her baby, who was delivered stillborn by emergency caesarean section on May 16, 2009.

Had she received a transfusion en route, she would have suffered a less severe level of hypovolaemic shock, which had resulted in the baby not getting enough oxygen, her counsel Eugene Gleeson told the court.

Making the award, Mr Justice Ryan said it was “scarcely credible in this day and age” that an ambulance would be arranged and a patient suffering an internal bleed would be put in that ambulance without someone thinking of having the necessary cross-matched blood for transfusion.

What had happened involved “bad decision-making”, “extraordinary ineptitude”, and a further delay when she arrived at hospital, he said. It was accepted by the HSE this led to “a dreadful tragedy whereby the couple’s baby died”.

The judge said he must award damages on the basis of legal principles, not on the basis of expressing sympathy or his sense of indignation this had happened. He assessed damages in a total sum of €170,000 for Ms Ní Chonchubhair against the HSE.

Ms Ní Chonchubhair sued the HSE for severe personal injuries and shock due to negligence and breach of duty arising from the stillbirth of her baby.

During the case, Emily Egan, for the HSE, offered an apology for what had happened. Liability was admitted and the case was before the judge for assessment of damages only.

It was also clear from Stephen Cotter’s evidence that the ambulance managed to take a slow route from Tralee to Cork, arriving after him even though he had headed home as his wife was about to leave Tralee, the judge said.

The couple had been blessed with two other children since, the judge added.