Rotunda Hospital apologises for failings in care to woman during birth of second child

The Rotunda Hospital has apologised to a woman for shortcomings and failings in care provided to her when she had her baby by Caesarean section six years ago.

Michelle Naughton sued, claiming the care in relation to her repeat Caesarean section fell below the standard to be expected and resulted in her near-death experience.

It was claimed the combination of intraoperative error and alleged post-operative neglect caused the mother to be close to death but she was later rescued, it was claimed, by the heroic surgery of a five-strong team of consultants.

At one stage at the Rotunda Hospital, it was claimed, Ms Naughton lost 3.7 litres of blood but only two units were replaced.

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The letter of apology from the master of the Rotunda Hospital, Prof Sean Daly, was read to the High Court as Ms Naughton settled her High Court action. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

The letter stated: “On behalf of the management and staff of the Rotunda Hospital I wish to apologise for the shortcomings and failings in care provided to you during your time as an inpatient in the Rotunda in 2017.”

It continued: “In particular, I apologise for the failure to escalate the level of clinical review to senior obstetric and anaesthetic personnel during the initial Caesarean delivery while you were in the high-dependency unit.

“We acknowledge the emotional and physical distress you experienced at that time”.

Outside court, Ms Naughton’s solicitor, Niall Tansey, said it was a harrowing ordeal for her. He said, while she welcomed the apology, Ms Naughton wants to see implemented all the recommendations in a report prepared after a review of what happened.

Those recommendations include that all non-consultant hospital doctors receive code red large haemorrhage protocol training as part of their induction into the hospital and understand the importance of calling code red to optimise the management of obstetric haemorrhage.

A mother of two, Ms Naughton, of Rossport, Ballina, Co Mayo sued the Rotunda Hospital, Parnell Square, Dublin, over the circumstances of her care during the birth of her second child.

It was claimed that on the evening of March 21st, 2017, Ms Naughton suffered a big placental abruption and there was a significant blood loss.

Surgery was required but it was claimed it was carried out by a junior doctor and it was later recorded that Ms Naughton lost a lot of blood and had big post-operative complications. Two units of blood were replaced and she was admitted to the high-dependency unit.

It was claimed it was not until a senior obstetrician saw Ms Naughton a few hours later that the extent of the impending disaster became apparent and she was moved to an operating theatre.

The operation could not be completed at the Rotunda Hospital and Ms Naughton was transferred to another hospital but she had by then suffered partial renal failure, it was claimed.

It was alleged the signs of increasing haemorrhage were ignored and a situation was caused where Ms Naughton suffered big post-operative complications and nearly died.

A situation, it was claimed, had been caused to unfold where Ms Naughton nearly died and suffered significant injury including two episodes of cardiac arrest.

Liability was conceded in the case.