Portlaoise Hospital baby deaths: Is history repeating itself?

(Left to right) Ann Dunne (Hilary’s mother), Hilary and Paddy Murphy, and Paddy's father, Pat, at an inquest in Portlaoise into the death of their baby son Ódhran. Picture: Neil Michael
There were nine empty chairs this Christmas at the dinner tables of mothers who have attended Portlaoise Hospital maternity unit in the last 17 years.

Three of the babies — Mary Kate, Luke, and Ódhran — were found at inquests to have died as a result of medical misadventure.
"I have already called for an investigation, but think it has fallen on deaf ears. What is happening is scandalous.”

Their son’s inquest heard that before Mrs Murphy was admitted to Portlaoise Hospital on December 27, 2021, she had suffered pre-labour rupture of membranes (Prom) at home.
Aaron died on May 9, 2016, at Dublin’s Coombe Hospital, having been born five days previously at the Midland Regional Hospital, in Portlaoise.

“The care delivered to Mrs [Cullen] and baby Aaron in [Portlaoise Hospital] is, at best, suboptimal and potentially dangerous, and such deficits would not have lessened the problems for baby Aaron.”
Anybody who thinks this whole scandal just dates back to 2006 should think again.

The worst year was 2018, when at least 10 babies died, but three of them died at the same Dublin hospital over a five-month period.