A HEAVILY pregnant woman, whose infant son was stillborn at Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar, after she was involved in a head-on car crash, told an inquest yesterday she felt badly treated by the hospital.
Lorna Niland, a mother of seven from Agloragh, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, complained at an inquest in Castlebar she had been “treated with little dignity” by the hospital after being admitted following the collision near her home on October 25th, 2009.
Ms Niland, who complained of constant right-sided abdominal pain and lack of foetal movements as well as back pain following the collision, had an emergency Caesarean section performed at the hospital, leading to the delivery of a baby boy.
On the opening day of the inquest yesterday into the death of the infant, who was named Andrew after his father, it was heard that after the birth the umbilical cord was found to be wrapped three times around the infant’s neck.
Outlining that she felt poorly treated by the hospital, Ms Niland, in a statement of which she read part to the hearing, said the only exception was a nurse who came up to her afterwards and gave her a hug.
“I was on antidepressants for a while and the guilt is always there, even though I have been told there was nothing I could have done,” she told the inquest.
“If only I had stayed in bed that morning,” she said.
Ms Niland was almost 32 weeks pregnant when her car, in which her four–year-old daughter Kerry was a passenger, collided with another car on a narrow road near her home.
She was not wearing a seat belt at the time and was struck by an airbag.
Dr Valentine Chukwuma Ugwu, registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at Mayo General Hospital in October 2009, said he called for an emergency Caesarean section as he was concerned about a possible placental abruption with a possible worsening of foetal compromise.
During cross-examination by Declan Buckley, counsel for the HSE and Mayo General Hospital, the witness said that during initial examination he found foetal movement, no placenta separation and no vaginal bleeding.
The inquest, conducted before a jury by the coroner for south Mayo, John O’Dwyer, will resume this morning.