Health chiefs take action after miscarriage diagnosis

Health chiefs today insisted they have stepped up precautionary measures after a pregnant woman was wrongly told her unborn baby was dead.

Medics arranged for Melissa Redmond, from Donabate, north Dublin, to take abortive drugs and have an operation to remove the foetus after a faulty scan misdiagnosed a miscarriage.

But she said her motherly instincts prompted her to seek out a second opinion just a day before the dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure was planned in a move that saved her now 13-week-old baby boy.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said they have taken a number of measures at Drogheda’s Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital to ensure there is no repeat of the “near-miss incident”.

But Melissa and her husband Michael said the authorities have not done enough to make sure other women have not been and will not be wrongly diagnosed as having miscarried.

“We believe it’s very important that people become aware what has happened to us,” said Michael.

“We believe that this could happen in other locations, and we want to make women aware of this and make sure they ask for a second opinion.

“Who knows what is happening in other hospitals and to other women?”

Mother-of-three Melissa, who has suffered miscarriages before, went to Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital for a scan while eight weeks into her pregnancy on July 22 last year.

Following a quick scan, she was told the pregnancy would not progress and was administered with the abortive drug Cytotec to take on the morning of the D&C operation to remove the foetus, scheduled for two days later.

“I was heartbroken,” she said.

But after getting morning sickness again at her friend’s home the next day, Melissa decided to get a second opinion from a local GP.

Despite thinking she was just giving herself “false hope”, she insisted she felt the same as she did when pregnant with her other two children, Cian and Tara.

The second scan showed almost immediately there was a heartbeat and when the sound was switched on the heartbeat “filled the room”, said Melissa.

When they went back to the hospital, another scan on a different machine to the initial botched examination confirmed that her unborn was baby was alive.

Melissa gave birth to her new baby boy, also called Michael, on March 6 this year.

The HSE confirmed the faulty scanner continued to be used for six months after the misdiagnosis.

It said a review was carried out into the “serious near-miss incident”, after which a number of measures were put in place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

These include a ban on administering Cytotec before a miscarriage is confirmed by a qualified sonographer, training junior doctors in early pregnancy assessment, making sure they are competent and the instalment of a suitable couch to allow transvaginal scanning.

The HSE said the scanner used in the misdiagnosis has been “taken out of commission” while a dedicated qualified sonographer will take up a position at the hospital’s early pregnancy assessment unit next month.

Fine Gael and Labour have demanded an investigation by the Health Information Quality Authority.

The HSE said it had set up a helpline for patients concerned about their treatment at Our Lady of Lourdes early pregnancy unit.

The helpline, 1800 200 529, will open at 9am tomorrow.