Court told traumatic delivery led to infant’s death in Mullingar

A couple whose first-born son died six days after a traumatic delivery in Mullingar General Hospital say his death could have been prevented by better care.

Una and Kevin Kelly were speaking after a verdict of medical misadventure was returned at an inquest yesterday into their son Kevin's death in August 2014.

The couple, from Kinnegad, Co Westmeath, said they felt vindicated by the verdict at Dublin City Coroner’s Court but accused the HSE of “prolonging our agony and pain” by failing to publish a report into their son’s death. “It’s not easy to get answers from the HSE. It’s like talking to a brick wall, we’re getting automated answers to questions that are so personal and important to us and we feel we haven’t gone anywhere,” said Ms Kelly.

Ireland East Hospital Group, which has responsibility for Mullingar, said the hospital was carrying out a systems analysis investigation but the report was not yet finalised. A spokeswoman declined to comment further.

Caesarean section

Coroner Dr

Brian Farrell

found the cause of baby Kevin’s death was a shortage of the supply of oxygen to the brain during delivery. He found “a significant period of time” – about 45 minutes - had elapsed between the decision by locum registrar Dr

Michael Osasare

to have Ms Kelly prepared for theatre and a Caesarean section being carried out. He said a major factor leading to the baby’s death was that Dr Osasare remained unaware of a slowing of the baby’s heart rate after a failed attempt to deliver by forceps. This meant Ms Kelly was not sent forward for Caesarean with the highest level of urgency.

The inquest heard conflicting evidence about Dr Osasare’s use of the forceps.

Ms Kelly said he made “two or three” separate attempts to deliver her baby with the instrument. For one of them, he placed his foot on the bed for leverage. “I could hear the forceps clicking, I felt physically a lot of moving around to find his head.”

Dr Osasare said he made one attempt, during which he pulled the forceps twice. He denied placing his foot on the bed or pulling vigorously.