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An Irish inquest into the death of a woman who was refused an abortion — a case that ignited demands to liberalise the country’s abortion laws — has revealed she died of an undiagnosed infection, not from being denied an abortion.
Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died in Galway University Hospital last October, a week after being admitted to hospital in her 17th week of pregnancy.
Evidence to the inquest showed that her death was the result of a single mistake made on the day she was admitted. Doctors failed to follow up on blood tests which indicated she may have been fighting a life-threatening sepsis infection.
One obstetrician — who did not have care of Mrs Halappanavar — indicated to the inquest that an abortion might have saved her life.
But the evidence of the other experts pointed overwhelmingly against that conclusion, and the jury accepted the coroner’s verdict of “medical misadventure”.
Nine recommendations which followed all relating to systems and procedures — not to changing or clarifying the abortion law. Instead, the inquest recommended that the medical council clarify its guidelines on what constituted real and substantive risks to mothers.
In any case, it appears that Mrs Halappanavar could have received an abortion under present Irish law if it were clear that her pregnancy posed a risk to her life.
Mrs Halappanavar’s husband Praveen told the Irish Times that the main reason his wife wanted an abortion was because “she wanted to be home Tuesday before her parents flew out. She wanted to be there at any cost.”
In the aftermath of Mrs Halappanavar’s death, her husband frequently claimed that the consultant who refused an abortion did so on the basis that “Ireland is a Catholic country”.
The consultant, Dr Katherine Astbury, denied saying this, and her denial was supported by a junior doctor who was present.
The inquest established it was a midwife who made the comment about Irish Catholicism some three hours later — in the context of a broader conversation about cultural differences between India and Ireland.
Ireland is one of the safest places in the world in which to give birth. It boasts maternal death rates 33 times lower than in Mrs Halappanavar’s home country of India.
Sources:
Image: Galway Independent
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News category: World.
