Savita doctor admits failures in care

A consultant who treated Savita Halappanavar has said she would have started terminating the foetus regardless of a heartbeat if she had been aware of a junior doctor’s note that the patient was suffering from sepsis.

Obstetrician Dr Katherine Astbury admitted at an inquest into the Indian dentist’s death that on the day she miscarried, Oct 24, she did not know a junior colleague had put on her chart at 6.30am that he suspected Mrs Halappanavar was suffering from sepsis caused by chorioamnionitis, an infection of the foetal membrane.

She said that when she examined Mrs Halappanavar at 8.30am in University Hospital Galway, her vitals had dropped and she believed she had sepsis, not severe sepsis, and admitted her registrar Dr Anne Helps did not read the earlier entry reporting a foul-smelling discharge, a sign of chorioamnionitis.