'Caesarean' patient makes complaint

A WOMAN who narrowly avoided a Caesarean section after seeking a second opinion has made a complaint against the Cavan hospital where the diagnosis was made.

The woman, who does not wish to be named, was told she would need a Caesarean section after a scan showed she had placenta previa. The complication, which involves the placenta being dangerously close to or covering the cervix, can result in serious complications.

Last November, when the woman was 34 weeks’ pregnant, she was scanned at Cavan General Hospital and told her placenta was only 1cm from her cervix and she would need a Caesarean section.

She transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda so she could be nearer her home for what would be a longer hospital stay. She was told she would need a Caesarean at 38 weeks.

“I was emotionally distressed and it didn’t sit right with me,” she said. With her husband she went to a private maternity hospital in Dublin, where she had another scan nine days later. The ultra-sonographer there, who also sought a second opinion from colleagues, told her she was “nowhere near” needing a section.

She delivered her baby naturally at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in January having waited to go into labour before attending. She has since made a complaint to Cavan General Hospital and the hospital is reviewing her case.

Support groups have been inundated with phone calls complaining of mistreatment at maternity hospitals around the country since the miscarriage misdiagnosis scandal broke early this week.

Up to a dozen women came forward that had been wrongly diagnosed as having miscarried only to give birth to healthy babies.

Many of the calls to helplines provided by the Miscarriage Association of Ireland and the Associations for Improvement in Maternity Services (Aims) have been from women who were diagnosed with miscarriage and who had an operation to remove the dead foetus. There have also been calls about misdiagnosis of placenta previa.

Women have complained of being given wrong dates based on scans and subsequently having labour induced too early. And others have said the helpline provided by the HSE simply passes them on to the hospital where they were treated and they have had to make their complaint directly to the doctor who made their diagnosis.

Some 400 calls have been received by the HSE via its two helplines this week.