A baby died from severe bleeding and shock after a needle being used to take blood samples penetrated its scalp, an inquest in Cork was told yesterday. City Coroner Mr Cornelius Riordan adjourned the inquest and ordered a senior doctor to attend the next sitting to explain how baby Denis McMahon from Mallow died.
"This child was obviously perfectly healthy in the mother's womb and yet he ended up dead. Nobody has come in to tell us anything about it. It's all too casual and I think the circumstances of this death should be clarified," said the coroner.
The baby died on August 26th, 1996, seven hours after delivery by caesarean section in the Cork University Hospital, according to a statement from his mother, Ms Bernadette McMahon (25), which was read by Insp John O'Brien.
Dr C. Keohane, who performed the post-mortem, said death was caused by bleeding and shock resulting from a wound to a large vein in the top of the baby's head which was caused by a needle piercing his scalp during the taking of two blood samples. "Labour was proceeding normally, but when the child got into complications, an emergency caesarean section was carried out. Blood samples were taken routinely during the vaginal stage of delivery, but bleeding was severe and the section was performed," she said.
Prof Peter Kearney, consultant paediatrician, said in a statement he agreed with the post-mortem findings that death was due to haemorrhage, shock and pulmonary atelectasis.