A woman who permitted post-mortems to be carried out on two of her infant children at Galway's University College Hospital in the early 1980s received assurances from the hospital yesterday that none of their glands were retained.
However, Ms Helen Greaney, from the Newcastle area of the city, has questioned how the hospital was able to give her such assurances when a statement from the Western Health Board, which runs the hospital, earlier this week said it did not have "comprehensive records" of the number of pituitaries collected by the hospital.
"I'm relieved but I don't know what to believe. If the health board statement said comprehensive records didn't exist, how can they tell me now they did not keep them?" Ms Greaney said.
The mother of two adult children had contacted the hospital in recent days seeking information on whether pituitary glands from her deceased children were harvested and sent to any pharmaceutical company to manufacture human growth hormone, after several hospitals said they had done so.
Among them was University College Hospital, Galway, which said on Tuesday that pituitary glands were collected mainly from adults, but also children, at the hospital in the early 1980s and frozen for transport to the Danish pharmaceutical company KabiVitrum, now known as Pharmacia.
It said the hospital's histopathology department received "a small honorarium" in return, which was used to purchase pathology textbooks and that the practice ceased in or around 1986 when artificially synthesised growth hormone became available.
It also said it regretted if the practice caused any distress to parents or families and advised anyone with queries to contact the hospital.
Ms Greaney took up the offer, saying she was surprised by the latest information in the hospital's statement.
Her surprise, she said, was due to the fact that when the controversy over organ retention by Irish hospitals broke five years ago, she also contacted the hospital at that time.
She says she was told then by a member of staff that it was not hospital policy to remove any organs.
She also received a letter from UCHG pathologist Dr Malcolm Little, in March 2000 which stated: "I readily understand your anxiety and I am delighted to be able to inform you that no organs were retained in the hospital following the post-mortem examinations on each of those infants". However, when she heard this week that glands were retained in some cases, she was worried that the organs referred to in Dr Little's letter may not have included pituitary glands. The hospital contacted her again to say she had nothing to worry about and that if glands had been retained, it would have been mentioned in Dr Little's letter.
The Greaney children on whom post-mortems were carried out at UCHG died in January and December 1982. Lindsay died while her mother was in labour and Kenneth died at 30 weeks, both as a result of rhesus incompatibility.