Praveen ‘grateful to his dying day’ to hospital’s critical care staff

Praveen Halappanavar will be grateful “to his dying day” to the critical care staff at Galway University Hospital for the care they gave to his wife Savita before she passed away.

Senior counsel Eugene Gleeson made the comments as a succession of senior doctors and specialist nursing staff working at the high-dependency and intensive care units at the hospital detailed the tragic last few days of her life as she battled an E.coli infection that was resistant to antibiotics.

Each member of the specialist medical staff concluded their statements to Mrs Halappanavar’s inquest by offering their sympathy to her husband on his loss. Mr Gleeson and barrister John O’Donnell, both acting for Mr Halappanavar, told each individually that he was grateful for their remarks.

Mr Halappanavar has been present for each of the four days of evidence to date, but yesterday, the coroner, Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin, advised his legal team that the pathologist who carried out the autopsy on his wife could deliver a shortened version of her findings if the detail of the full version was too difficult for him.

Mr Gleeson advised the coroner his client would leave the inquest next week while the pathology findings are delivered.

It is planned to have three pathologists give evidence to the inquest. Prof Grace Callagy will deliver her findings on the autopsy of Mrs Halappanavar, while the others will give evidence of the autopsies of her 17-week baby daughter and the placenta.

Further question marks arose yesterday over possible delays in having a crucial blood test carried out. Consultant microbiologist Deirbhile Keady was queried about a blood sample taken from Mrs Halappanavar at 6.30am-7am on the morning of Oct 24, when her condition had worsened.

She had been called at home with the results at 8.30pm-9pm and Mr Gleeson asked her why it took so long to get a vital result. Dr Keady agreed that it appeared the sample had arrived in the microbiology lab at 10.12am, but did not know what time it had been collected.

Pressed by Mr Gleeson and the coroner, Dr Keady agreed that the sooner that specimens were received in the lab, the better, but said that, in this particular case, the results did not change the management of the patient as she had already received appropriate therapy from that afternoon.

The inquest was told that the test revealed an E.coli strain, known as EBSL, which is resistant to most antibiotics.

Senior counsel Declan Buckley, for the hospital and the HSE, undertook to clarify the exact timing that the blood sample was taken from Mrs Halappanavar and the time it arrived at the lab.

Meanwhile, after arriving for yesterday’s hearing, Mr Halappanavar told reporters that he was grateful to midwife Ann Maria Burke for being so truthful in her evidence.

Ms Burke told the inquest on Wednesday that she was sorry for having referred to Ireland as a Catholic country during a discussion she had with his wife, when she requested a termination of pregnancy.

She said she had made the comments during “a chat” with Mrs Halappanavar and did not make them in a hurtful way.

Mr Halappanavar said he was surprised at the nurse’s evidence, which he said, had come out of the blue. He said he understood Ms Burke’s point of view and took some comfort from the truth coming out.