THE REVIEW of misdiagnosed miscarriages announced last week by the Health Service Executive (HSE) will look at some cases which occurred more than five years ago, it was confirmed yesterday.
While the HSE initially said the review would consider incidents of misdiagnosis over the past five years only it said yesterday the review team “will accept submissions from outside the five-year timeframe where the case can inform the work of the review team and the development of national standards”.
About a dozen women spoke out publicly last week about being wrongly told they had miscarried after initial scans at a number of maternity hospitals.
They claimed the foetus they were carrying would have been removed were it not for them insisting on second scans.
In the first case Melissa Redmond from Donabate, Dublin, was prescribed an abortifacient after an initial scan at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in July 2009 showed no foetal heartbeat. However, before taking the drugs and acting on her own instinct that she was still pregnant, she sought another scan from her GP who discovered the baby was alive. Her son Michael was born in March.
Since then there have been 240 calls from concerned women to maternity hospitals around the country. Cases now coming to light as well as those already on file will be included in the review.
The review team will be chaired by Prof William Ledger, vice president of the Royal College of Obstetrics in the UK.
He will be assisted by Prof Michael Turner of the HSE’s obstetrics programme; Sheila Sugrue of the HSE’s midwife programme; and Cathriona Molloy of Patient Focus.
They will also have access to expert advice in areas such as radiology and diagnostic imaging equipment if required.
It is expected the review will be completed within six months and the HSE has committed to publishing it.