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THE HUSBAND OF the late Savita Halappanavar has thanked a midwife from Galway University Hospital for confirming her remarks about Ireland being a Catholic country as a part-explanation for his wife not being able to receive a termination last October.
Speaking to reporters outside the Coroner’s Court in Galway, Praveen Halappanavar said he was surprised but pleased with the testimony of Ann Maria Burke yesterday.
“I would like to thank her for being honest…it came out of the blue,” he said this morning, adding that he understood her point of view.
“It is very difficult, I’ve seen it all. The way she was treated was horrendous so…it’s just some comfort that the truth is coming out.”
Burke, who is a manager at St Monica’s ward at Galway University Hospital, confirmed she made the comment mentioned by family friend Mrudala Vasepalli during Tuesday’s proceedings.
“We don’t do that here, dear. It’s a Catholic thing,” Vasepalli recalled being told by the midwife.
Burke told the court that she did not mean it in a hurtful way. She said the phrase had “come out the wrong way and I’m sorry that I said it”.
“It does sound very bad now, but at the time I didn’t mean it that way.”
The coroner Ciaran McLoughlin said the remark had been picked up around the world but stated Irish public hospitals did not operate under religious dogma of any persuasion.
During today’s hearings, the inquest heard that eight retrospective entries were made to Savita Halappanavar’s 110-page medical file. The extra information was added to what were supposed to be contemporaneously taken notes. Some details were added two weeks after her death.
Dr MacLoughlin said he’d never seen so many retrospective entries in a patient’s medical records. A lawyer representing the hospital, Declan Buckley, noted that the entries were clearly labeled by date, claiming they were added to ensure the most detailed record of care decisions was presented to the court. He said there was “never any intention to mislead anyone”.
There was also more evidence heard today from the medics who treated the 31-year-old pregnant woman in the days before she died.
Lawyers for Halappanavar issued a statement to the court praising the emergency room staff for their “valiant efforts” to save his wife as she fell into a coma and her organs failed.
Yesterday, questioning focused on when a termination of offered by Dr Katherine Astbury. The consultant said she discussed termination with Savita when she requested medicine to expedite the process after she was told the outlook on the pregnancy was poor.
Astbury told the court she had explained to Savita that the legal position in Ireland did not permit her to carry out a termination at that time.
“I also informed Mrs Halappanavar that if she did not continue to improve we might have no option but to consider termination drugs.”
The inquest also heard evidence of systems failures indicating that hospital staff broke accepted protocols for monitoring the health of a woman miscarrying, especially regular checks for blood poisoning and ensuring that all key staff saw the blood-test results promptly.
Savita Halappanavar died on 28 October from complications as a result of septicaemia. She had been admitted to the hospital on 21 October. She was 17 weeks pregnant.
Praveen Halappanavar said the inquest was his last chance to discover the truth about how and why his wife was treated. Nearly 70 statements from hospital staff, police and other sources have been gathered for the inquest but not all of their authors will appear as witnesses. The inquest is expected to continue into the middle of next week.
Additional reporting by Conor Barrins, AFP and Associated Press
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I drive by the building every so often. Looks fantastic. But completely out of place. Roads around it can be gridlocked. Whoever decided on putting it there needs their head examined. Should have been built outside the city, either at an existing hospital, outside the city, or a brand new one, outside the city.
@AnthonyK: shouldn’t look fantastic, it should have been a rectangular fooking building, that would provide a badly needed service for our children.
Costing f#€k all compared to the money that has so far been spent on it.
@AnthonyK: They were warned not by an expert group for a pretty penny and completely ignored the advice, advising for it to be built in Blanchardstown.
@den: bang on, a simple design would have been fractions of this cost but we need to pay for some consultant to deisgn it so they can win an award, also a green or brownfied site off the m50 would have made more sense. We’re stuck with it now, only power we have left is at the ballot box.
@The next small thing: they were offered a green field site for free, on the N7 I think it was.
@AnthonyK: correct, should have been a green field site ,not stuck in the middle of Dublin
@The next small thing: Why does it have to be anywhere near Dublin? The midlands is the correct place for a Central Hospital. The blindness of strategic decision makers is staggering. Parents having to travel for four or five hours to be gridlocked on the M50 is just wrong.
@sean weir: who would work there?
@AnthonyK: That was the Minister at the time and his friends in the IMO, who insisted it went there
@Patrick MC Dermott: The hospital needs to be based where the majority of the population is based and that is Dublin! Also where the staff can find somewhere to live!
@Gary Kearney: the majority of the population live outside Dublin.
@Fintan: correct me if I’m wrong, but there doesn’t appear to be any staff residences. When I worked in London, I was asked if I needed accommodation – it was available in all the hospitals I worked in!
What magic money tree is FG using to build the world’s MOST expensive hospital? Talk about fiscal responsibly. From the party who said they’d end the trolley crisis and that “it is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person’s home.”
@9QRixo8H: The Apple Tree.
@9QRixo8H: you think this is expensive…. wait till they decide to hold a tribunal into the building and cost of it after it opens…..ive a funny feeling all the Apple money won’t even cover the cost of the 10 year tribunal and the 400 solicitor and barrister that will be involved
@9QRixo8H: It’s not a magic money tree. It’s the squeezed citizens still paying austerity taxes. Income tax take was €36.3 billion last year and the VAT take was €28.4 billion, €5.8 in excise, €1.8 billion in stamp duties, €1 billion in property taxes, CGT,CAT & customs about 2.5 billion….. Excess corporate tax is going towards the wealth fund
@D. Peadar:
Six months after it’s up and running the people will see the fantastic improvements it brings to the children far out weight the cost.
so your bad mouthing is really a waste of time.
@D. Peadar:
I though the lefty left regard properly as theft, comrade
@H Woo: talking out your ar5e again I see
@H Woo: hardly when many consultants’ rooms are not even wheelchair accessible crazy it got this far, and took for a parents preview to point this out. I’m sure they are running like flies to fix this small error. So the hundreds of advisors couldn’t see this was a problem.
That’s only one of them. Location being the biggest, now diverting traffic away from city, as they know when it opens it will be a total s#it show.
@H Woo: what planet are you on
@H Woo: It is in the wrong location and is overpriced.
On and a number of years late in finishing.
So saying the truth is never a waste of time!
Bam should be held responsible along with whoever had oversight of the tendering process. Bam are notorious for putting in low bids, winning the tender and then escalating costs. Bam must not be allowed to walk away with their profits.
@Alan: No, the Govt needs to be held responsible for keeping to give them money. Plug should have been pulled a long time ago.
@Alan: The moment a large public project is awarded to BAM there’s two certainties:
- it’s going to end up costing a multiple of their quote
- the quality is going to be shite
Harris started the children’s hospital first, it was to be his legacy, with the grand design. He should be held accountable for it.
W@nker
@den: a…count….a…ble….?
Don’t be fooled, The Hate Bill will be back once they get re elected. All the Best.
@den: It goes all the way back to Bertie, who wanted it in his constituency.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: He wanted it to be a link up of the three hospitals , The Mater, Temple Street and The Rotunda.
The over spend of 2 billion is the equivalent of 6000 new homes that could have been built. Simple maths . Or 6 thousand families been homed. At and average of 4 per family The complete in competence of this government is mind boggling.
@Jimmy Donovan:
The Irish subcontractors who overcharged in this project should be ashamed of themselfs perticulery if they themselfs have children/grandchildren.
@H Woo: same as the one that did that feckin bike shed ,
It’s the government spending the money,they are the one who needs to be ashamed
Its working out cheap when you factor in the cost of a bike shed
@Kevin O’Connell: can’t do anything right in the country at all why do we get everything so wrong all the time
@Alan Moloney: And yet FG are top in a recent poll.
@Alan Moloney:
We don’t.
Google Manchester children’s hospital. Berlins Willie Brant Airport.
There now, no need to feel inferior just because you are Irish.
@H Woo: the most expensive building in the history of feckin history
Donnelly is responsible for the fiasco that is Limerick university hospital
@reg morrisey: the electorate can share some of the fiasco as well foe constantly electing the same useless gombeens
@reg morrisey: he’s not, HSE have operational control over hospitals.
@Pat Hazzard: he’s the minister for health the buck stops with him. End of story.
Just wait and see, on the day this hospital opens, the revolving doors will get stuck and there won’t be any milk in the coffee machines
@Ronan McGrath: as long as they treat people don’t think I would be too worried doors and coffee.
@Phillip Smyth: How would get in to be treated?
@Ronan McGrath: it won’t be missing from the coffee machines in the staff quarters anyway.
@Brian D’Arcy: could you get me in… have you any pull.
Incompetence on a worldwide scale, this is what Fine Gael, Fianna Fail & the Green Party have brought us. Take a bow Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris, Micheal Martin, Eamon Ryan, Stephen Donnelly, Robert Watt & Bernard Gloster, this worldwide embarrassment is on your watch. The most expensive Hospital build in the World, with yet again no opening date & no final cost. Currently at €2.2 Billion with €600 Million in dispute, that’s €2.8 Billion & yet another Bailout required. On top of that we have a failed Health Service & the tragic death of Aoife Johnston shows that our Health Service is actually dangerous & at the point of collapse. Stephen Donnelly & the highly paid Robert Watt are responsible for running this shit show & the NCH is symbolic of a failed Nation Micheal Martin on your watch.
@SV3tN8M4: next failure on the horizon is they won’t be able to fully staff it and some wards will be mothballed.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: Having spoke to a sub contractor who was on site, the snag list is massive & very serious remediation needed in certain areas. The architect design has ensured that everything is complex, instead of building practically. Staffing in Nursing, Teaching, Gardai, Builders for the Dublin region is a serious problem as accommodation & cost of living make it next to impossible to survive. HSE bypass Irish people for jobs anyways as was exposed recently with people on panels overlooked & jobs advertised overseas
@John Mc Dermott:
Nurses from certain counties are trained to USA nursing standards, so more skilled in certain procedures then our nurses. But those skills are not allowed due to Health union restrictive work practices but still worth importing higher skill sets
@H Woo: I can never understand people who put party before the good of the country and it’s citizens.
These people work for US and in a real democracy that means we get to hire and fire them .
But we now have a head of government the was responsible for bring down his own party in government and was elected as a TD on the 5th count and is unelected to office at the moment.
@H Woo: Health Unions are not restrictive in their work practises. They are however very fussy about the qualifications of medical staff.
Irish Nurses are considered some of the best trained in the world.
While Success has many father’s, failure is an orphan….
Just curious how covid had any serious impact on the delay when the site remained open and building continued during covid. Sounds like a bs excuse.
@John: the entire project was shut down for an extensive period of 4 weeks at one point until Bam brought in mandatory covid testing once a week for all contractors.
@John: Production slowed internationally so there were likely delays in sourcing materials. Paying a premium could get your order pushed to the front of the queue. Costs passed onto the client. Additional welfare facilities, masks, sanitizer, extra cars to transport crew around with reduced occupancy, all the bells and whistles which were needed for safe working at the time. Over here in Germany, the government established guidelines for contractors to build variations based on additional costs due to covid. On one of my sites we argued an extra 15 minutes per man per day for additional hand washing/mask changing etc. With 40 people on site, over the 6 month period where things were most stingent, it was a nice little earner once approved.
It’s the Irish civil/public service Ivana – so NOBODY is responsible for anything. They’re only in charge, but they’re NOT responsible. That’s how it works, always had been & I doubt any party has the courage to try change it.
And remember when it’s finished will still have less beds than the 3 hospitals it’s supposed to replace, Crumlin, temple street and Tallaght. Mother of god a monstrosity with LESS facilities than th existing hospitals
@Ciaran Bolger: what’s mother of god got to do with it lol
@Phillip Smyth: fair enough!
@Ciaran Bolger: and how much to maintain a multi billion designer hospital each year?
@Ciaran Bolger:
Less facilities because three hospitals gathered together on one site, makes sence.
@H Woo: Fewer beds than the 3 old hospitals it is replacing makes sense to you?
Fewer beds with a larger and growing population makes sense to you?
Guys, we may have found the source of the problem – H Woo must have been involved in the decision-making process.
He won’t take any responsibility..he never does. The reason FFG and the awful Greens will be destroyed in the next election (despite what certain polls say) is because people like Donnelly, McEntee and O’Gorman, who have performed desperately, never EVER pay for their mistakes!!
@G: & what will be there ?
Donnelly is an abject failure. The amount of s##t he talks is unbelievable. A most obvious spoofer. It’s nothing short of scandalous how he’s allowed get away with such incompetence. BUT according to a poll today, 45% of those polled are happy for a continuation of the current Government formation. Just ponder that for a second and then ask yourself if the future looks any better? We get what we deserve!
BAM should be held responsible- they issued a programme and again have failed – penalties should be associated with missing deadlines , would have presumed this was in the contracts signed from day one .
@D: and yet they get more contracts , laughable
@DC: they get contracts based on the fact they csn bring the irish government to court to challenge the awarding of a contract to another contractor, its a threat that has been used for years by contractors, as there is a line in all government E-tenders, that the lowest quote isnt awarded the contract on cost bit the over all delivery of the works
Should have been in a green field sight in the midlands with access for everyone. Corruption and brown envelopes. This country is corrupt to the core. Politicians, gardai, developers, banks.
@Éanna o Sca: the Consultants faught to get it there beside St James ‘s Hospital & that who its built there
@Sheila McNulty: that’s even better..so the consultants dictate?!
@Éanna o Sca:
Hang in there pal,
Ireland in the top fifteen LEAST corrupt countries in the world.
Stop making silly claims.
@H Woo: based on what exactly?!
@H Woo: Ireland is in the top fifteen in the world, at hiding corruption Woo Hoo.
@Éanna o Sca:
Yea, try get staff down to the midlands
@H Woo: that’s complete bs
@Éanna o Sca: In the midlands, a long way from the largest population center and without the other facilities the hospital and the staff need. Makes no sense.
@Sheila McNulty: BAcked by the Minister for Health who happened to be an ex IMO leader.
Price of the bike shed is now the new “yard stick” to compare property prices [and everything else]
Sure Mehole will probably blame Sinn Féin, again, for the government’s complete inability to come anywhere close to the original budget. They were warned to find a new contractor at the start of the project and refused but sure it’s everyone else’s fault so much so that I’m not sure if the government had anything to do with building it and as for Simon Harris accusing people that they don’t want the National Children’s Hospital to be built for highlighting how out of control the budget has gone, well, people will vote them back in with yhe faecical response of better the devil you know is pure and simple stupidity.
@Brian D’Arcy:
He will only blame shin Fein if they are running the building sites in Dublin like their hero’s where doing up north in the good old days in cahuts with the UDA.
@H Woo: you see what I mean ,feck the country,just back the party no matter what they do
Re….spons…a….bil….ity?
Anyone at all surprised by this. So close after the big shed fiasco? BAM seen the opening and ran right through it with the hand out. Just out of curiosity can anyone tell me if BAM can be dismissed and a new contractor brought in, new contact with penalties for delays?
@Mick O’K:
No. only they know where the pipes are buried
What children’s hospital?
I’ll believe it when it happens!
@Padraig O’Brien:
Landscaping is nearly complete.
So not long now.
@H Woo: Just snagging and with a difficult building like this one, there will be a lot of that!
Who got that many brown envelopes at the expense of the taxpayers?
In June 2023 Varadkar said the new hospital would take it’s first patients in late 2024. The only people to pay any price for this debacle are the children who are still waiting.
Election fight , dogs fight
leprechaun vote for leprechaun
Lessons learned lads.
Next article: support surges for FG in the polls
Glad so many enjoying the ride.
Ivana who??
@Trump23:
Some posh bird
Absolutely, that dope is responsible for that young lady’s death
@Goo Eyes Delaney:
Nurse who stated her concerns about the poor lady did not go to the minster, she went to senior staff if I recall from the reports.
What type of money is the CEO of Barardos on?
@H Woo: They same type as the rest of us!
Meanwhile on another story here about Barnardos “it’s cold at home and there is no food” the shame of it rests fully on this government, scandal after scandal , dangle a few USC and Income Tax reductions and all the sheeple fall for it and they will get another term. Shame on you if you vote for this again for another 5 year term as you are complicite in destroying the country.
Think of your children before you keep voting for these elitist imbeciles
@DC: and your alternate is SF/IRA, Nazis and or hard left ?
@Pat Hazzard: blah blah blah borehole
@Pat Hazzard: so you condone their behaviour so you won’t vote for anyone else or you just a fat troll
@DC:
How much is the CEO of Bernard’s pulling out a year?
Defund the NGOs
@DC:
Is the CEO of Bernard’s home cold?
@Pat Hazzard: that’s it keep pushing the party line , doesn’t matter how many suffer
@H Woo: Do you what NGOs do and what they are funded for?
Or how they are funded?
Of course not, but is is an easy target.
Are all NGOs perfect, nope, I am sure there are a few bad apples but overall, especially in the health and disability sector.
The vast majority do great work.
Everything that politicians touch
They destroyed.
As with the infamous “bicycle shelter” at Leinster House there is gross incompetence and mismanagement at the top in Ireland and accountability is neither sought or expected. Until the “buck” tops somewhere this will continue and many more billion bucks will fall through the cracks of the Manwell mantra of “I know nothing, nothing.”
Donnelly must take responsibility as health minister for a bit more than only delay in childrens hospital.
Should it not read the opening of the hospital has been “pushed back” not pushed forward?
Common sense and working together with the employees at the pump..
Staffing will be a huge undertaking that’s going to be a major problem so we need an 100.000 through the revolving doors, and hence, here we go again loads more to complain, so it’s good we have hate speech out the way, get up the yard get in that door yeh good thing.
This needs to stop NOW.
Forget the building, pull out the contractors and sell it off.
No more money or this will NEVER end.
You can bet your ass there’s embezzlement going on with it, especially under BAM…
Ivana will take full responsibility for attacking family carers and cruelly not even apologizing.
Disgrace to the highest order. Why did it have to be built in Dublin and not the centre of Ireland on a green site and easier access to every family in Ireland. And yes Pearse Doherty needs yo take over SF ASAP. Us donegal wans show yous how to run the country.
@Bills n Stuff: Miles away from where the people are living, that makes no sense whatsoever.
But it is just another ABD comment.
@Gary Kearney: Gary are you aware that the majority of people in this country live outside of Dublin? Besides it would take less time time to get out from the centre in contraflow traffic to the proposed site at the N7 than to go across town. This hospital has been situated to suit its upper management and consultants, nobody else.
And Fine Gail is leading the polls again… closely followed by Fianna Fail… Hard to believe but that’s the reality.
If this was my own building I would be seeking justice court and compensation
Wow great speech
‘Co-location’ was the excuse given for building this hospital in the car park of another hospital. That anyone would have reasonably bought into this nonsense, much less our glorious leaders, defies belief. But at least the consultants will not have to travel far from D4 – which is the real reason this white elephant was approved. If you vote for FG this is what you will continue to get. Power corrupts.
@Conrad Shields: Now an even bigger joke
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