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SURVIVORS OF SYMPHYSIOTOMY were demonstrating outside Government Buildings this afternoon calling for the Health Minister and Taoiseach to listen to its concerns.
It comes after the UN human rights committee said Ireland should identify, prosecute and punish those responsible for the procedures without patient consent.
In July of this year the Government established an ex-gratia payment scheme for the 350 women who have undergone surgical symphysiotomy which will cost around €34million – it also said it would commit to the continued provision of medical services, including Medical Cards for the women.
Josephine Kerr (80) told TheJournal.ie, “I think the government should hurry up with the redress scheme. People are getting older and a lot of us won’t see it – it’s been a long battle.”
One lady in the crowd was 93, approximately 70 people came out to demonstrate, many elderly and in wheelchairs.
Chairperson of Survivors of Symphysiotomy, Marie O’Connor, said that as it stands, “There is to be no independent public inquiry…no admission of wrongdoing.”
Women will be required to sign away their legal and constitutional rights as a condition of entry to the scheme, before they know how much money they will be offered.
Another woman in the crowd said “We want the redress scheme to work, I think we’ve been treated very badly. I had mine in 1966 and to think we’re still fighting all these years later – it should be done by now. We really want justice.”
Speaking about the procedure she said:
“It was in 1961 in the old Coombe Hospital- they say you were told about the operation, I knew nothing about the operation until it was done and finished.
What the sister said to me was – ‘You have to have a slight operation’, a slight operation and to breath in and out through this thing. It was 12 months before I could walk, the only way I could get around was on the kitchen chair. They have no idea what people went through.
The group handed in a letter to the Taoiseach’s office today.
O’Connor said, “We have actively been seeking to enter into talks with Government for the past two years but no meaningful engagement has ever taken place.”
However the Health Department told TheJournal.ie, “The Minister has examined all aspects of the symphysiotomy issue over the summer recess and looks forward to meeting all three groups as soon as details of the scheme are finalised in the coming weeks.”
O’Connor added that there is a conflict of interest for the State Claims Agency to control the scheme as it is ”an arm of government charged with saving the government money”.
The agency will be expected to keep costs as low as possible and they can only do this by cutting payments to the bone…contrary to what the UN recommended, there will be no individualised assessment, so no distinction will be made between women who were grievously injured and those who were not.
Survivor testimony and medical records show that symphysiotomy was a planned procedure.’
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Just unbelievable that they continue to ignore these women. They have suffered enough, they really should not have to travel and to protest to get justice. What an awful way to treat people who were already so badly treated.
Dell my friend met with the Minister of justice in July this year. She was with her legal team. Francais Fitzgerald asked her why did you want to see me?
She has been told now sine that meeting a very important letter is on the way to her. Two months later still no letter.
These women need to wake up and realise this government and Enda Kenny don’t give a dame about them, equal laws or human rights. These women were violated , Francais told the UN the women signed the consent forms.
If that is true then they were butchered without any anaesthetic but I guess it all lies out of the minister mouth on hear say shit from within her department. I only hope Enda and Francais don’t end up with a stoma bag or dysfunctional bladder wearing nappies. Karma always comes back.
Ladies you should be proud and keep up the fight.
Yeah, keep going Government of this proud “Republic “, (a la Bridget McCole “). String it out long enough and a good few more of these unfortunate women will be dead, and the ‘ public purse ‘ protected. Both houses of the Oireachtas pillage the public purse daily, and we have no say about that – but we are invited to be happy that these gals be put through every additional humiliation and torture that our clever civil servants can devise, to protect our ‘public purse’ ‘. As ordinary decent people we can only hope that international condemnation (which they fear) will move our greedy and heartless “Masters” to do the right thing, for once
@Sheik Yahbouti
“a la Bridget McCole”
This is about symphysiotomy, not tainted blood transfusions.
There would be even greater cutbacks to public services if the public finances are placed in jeopardy again.
Symphysiotomy was done in that era because hospitals didn’t have the equipment that was needed to ensure that Caesarean sections could be carried out safely.
I thought it was due to some nonsensical teaching of the Catholic Church?
We had a primitive health service in those days.
Symphysiotomy had been discontinued in Western Europe as early as the late 19th century. These procedures were conducted for religious reasons, in order for Catholic women to produce more Catholics – no other reason. People who are horrified by this, should really consider why they are enrolling children as members of that Church which caused misery to so many.
“The tone is in marked contrast to the very objective and dispassionate tone of the statements on symphysiotomy issued by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
There isn’t a hint of anti-Catholicism in the statements, even though the institute’s latest statement, issued this week, does refer to Catholic opposition to artificial contraception.
The statement says that the procedure was mainly used in the 1950s and 1960s. Seemingly it was only rarely used in other parts of Western Europe at the time, although according to the draft report, accurate figures are very hard to come by.
But even in Ireland, when it was being used most commonly, it was still very rare. The institute says the rate was just 0.035 per hundred births. The main reason for its use is because back then it was riskier to perform caesarean sections.
The statement says: “The risks of maternal and infant death and morbidity at that time were greater with caesarean section, even when mothers were healthier and the attendant problems related to anaesthesia, blood transfusion and infection were lessened”.
So what did we expect doctors to do back then, perform caesarean sections rather than symphysiotomies even when the former was medically riskier than the later?
The fact is that in developing countries even today — and back in the 1950s we were basically a developing country — symphysiotomy is still being used. And it is being used at the recommendation of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
When last I checked, the WHO was not dominated by Catholic theology.”
C-sections were the norm in Ireland since 1930s and we’re the norm for difficult births. Ireland had a number of large maternity hospital, which performed c-sections regularly. It’s false, misleading and insulting to all survivors of symphysiotomy to claim we did not have the equipment to carry out Caesareans. Moreover, symphysiotomies were performed in some cases after delivery by c-section and in other cases c-section was performed cause the symphysiotomy had failed. Symphysiotomy was a medical experiment driven by ideology and a desire to control women’s reproductive needs.
Ciaran that might be so but the butcher was an expert doctor who was trained to know better or could it be this was an extended experiment that result in monster butchery at the hand of a trained doctor approved by the state ? Francais Fitzgerald confirmed these facts to the UN with her replies. The butcher gave the consent or no anaesthetic. Very barbaric acts on these women.
“Symphysiotomy was done in that era because hospitals didn’t have the equipment that was needed to ensure that Caesarean sections could be carried out safely.”
No, it was done because zealots in the catholic church infiltrated the medical profession with the help of willing priests and bishops, in the hope of controlling women’s bodies for what they believed was the greater good of the church. Meanwhile the wimps in government were afraid of church condemnation and spent PAYE taxpayers money supporting this torture of women…..and now…it is all being covered up to protect “the public purse.”
Ciaran – bollocks, and you know it. The cesarean section was well known and well practised in this country at the time. You can stuff your apologia for the inexcusable, I will have no truck with you.
Rubbish, it was done to promote and enforce the domination of women’s bodies by the dark forces of a medieval religion. During and after the second world war all countries in Europe were “poor.” However the “good Catholics” in all those other “developing countries” in Europe did not revert to this barbarous practice – why – because they developed politically, ethically and morally after the 16th century and Ireland did not.
According to a statement from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (IOG), the risks of maternal and infant death and morbidity at that time were greater with caesarean section, even when mothers were healthier and the attendant problems related to anaesthesia, blood transfusion and infection were lessened and, according to the draft report, accurate figures on the number of symphysiotomies performed in Western Europe are hard to come by.
Yahbouti and mmx, you are ignoring dispassionate statements made by the IOG and the World Health Organisation.
The risks of maternal and infant death and morbidity at that time were greater with caesarean section
The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ members are the people who performed the symphysiotomy operations, Ciarán, and they have been the main force behind cover up. Like the way the Church covered up child abuse, the IOG has tried to cover up symphysiotomy with the help of Department of Health.
The World Health Organisation guidelines refer to emergency situation like extreme shoulder dsycotia where c-section in not possible e.g. Subsaharan Africa.
Lower segment c-section risks were always extremely low and in any event there were a number of other ways of dealing with obstructed labour such as forceps and a trial of labour.
The point you’re missing, or choosing to ignore, is that symphysiotomy is an operation which can only ever be justified when there’s a life and death situation and c-section is not available. In Ireland they planned the operations where there was no emergency and where there were always alternatives available. They did this because they wanted child bearing without limitation and they didnt care about the consequences for the women.
The ‘government’ are trying to say now that these ‘ procedures’ were an emergency operation to protect mother and baby! My Mother had a symphiosiotomy performed 5 days before my eldest sister was born!!! Emergency!!! Think not!
The ‘government’ are trying to say now that these ‘ procedures’ were an emergency operation to protect mother and baby! My Mother had a symphiosiotomy performed 5 days before my eldest sister was born!!! Emergency???!!! Think not!
They deserve to be compensated. Why is it we live in a ‘compo culture’, yet the very people that actually deserve compensation without question, always end up getting screwed?
The victims have been terribly wronged and now the government are doing it again by dragging it out, shame on them.
I was there to support these brave women. A wonderful turnout. They will not give up. I hope new Minister Leo Veradkar will be more sympathetic to their situation than his predecessor.
Enid, I commend you. Unfortunately I was not there, but I am sure your loving support gave strength to these poor ladies
The redress scheme that the Government are trying to rail road these brave women into, is ex-gratia, meaning that no-one is held accountable to the barbaric butchery that was done to these poor women. All the Government want to do is ignore them until they all just go away and die. Shame on our Government for continuing on the abuse. Give them their Justice.
Those poor women had their pelvis pulled apart. Faints, just thinking of it!!!
The Government will blame the Church and the Church will blame the Government. Both are half right. The Church and Government were one in those days. It has changed a little these days in so far as the Church is not as visible as it was…..but the Red mass is still there.
Joseph….no both were totally wrong, but at the time this was a socially fascist state and that aspect of our culture has never been acknowledged or dealt with by our political or religious leaders.
Source: Cliodhna Russell via TheJournal.ie" title="">
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