Family want 'a little bit of clarity' following death of woman after stillbirth in Cork

Geraldine Yankeu, a Cameroonian woman who died after the stillbirth of her daughter. Picture: Forevermissed.com

The sister of a woman who died at Cork University Maternity Hospital days after giving birth to her stillborn daughter says she wants to find out what led to her sister’s death so that her family can have closure.

Geraldine Yankeu’s sister Ornella was speaking after a preliminary inquest hearing into Geraldine’s death at CUMH in August 2021. The 31-year-old died after the birth of her stillborn daughter Mary. Both were taken to Geraldine’s native Cameroon for burial.

Geraldine’s partner and Ornella attended the hearing at Cork City Coroner’s Court on Thursday morning. Ornella said after the hearing that she wants to get “a little bit of clarity and an understanding of what happened” and why her sister died.

She added: “This is about finding out what happened and getting a level of understanding and create a little bit of closure eventually for the family.” 

During the hearing, Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn said he will have a submission hearing in January but said he could not fix a date until he could secure a list of witnesses who would be required to attend. He said that there would be an indication at the January hearing of how long the inquest would take.

During the hearing, barrister for the family Doireann O’Mahony said it was very traumatic for the family to find out through a report in the Irish Examiner following Geraldine’s first anniversary that an inquest was to take place.

Since the introduction of the 2019 Coroners Act, inquests into maternal deaths — during and after giving birth — are mandatory. However, Geraldine’s family were not aware of this.

In August, the Irish Examiner was told by the Cork City Coroner’s office that the deaths of both Ms Yankeu and her daughter Mary “were treated as natural and no inquest was required”.

Patrick Mbeng, Geraldine Yankeu's partner. Picture: Larry Cummins

However, four days later, a statement from the office said: “Baby Mary Yankeu’s death was treated as a 'Natural Death'. Ms Geraldine Yankeu’s death is due for hearing and will be listed for hearing as soon as a suitable date becomes available.” 

Ms O’Mahony told the court that the deaths of Mary and Geraldine were of national importance, as well as being of importance to their family.

Mr Comyn told the hearing that a decision to hold a post-mortem into Geraldine’s death was made after he reviewed her case file.

He told the hearing that there are resource issues in the Cork City Coroner’s office, and that it is “extremely understaffed”. He apologised to the family if they were upset by a delay or lack of communication.

He said: “We face severe difficulties in listing cases for inquest” because of the resources.

Geraldine Yankeu had been living in Cork city for a number of years and had attended both the Munster Technological University and the Cork College of Commerce. She worked as a customer services advisor in Cork.