HSE apologises to husband for care it gave to Savita

The Health Service Executive has apologised for the care it gave to Savita Halappanavar and the events at Galway University Hospital that contributed to her death.

In a letter to her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, Tony Canavan, chief operating officer of the Galway Roscommon Hospital Group, extends his condolences and says: "I also wish to apologise sincerely to you and to Savita's family for the events related to her care that contributed to her tragic, unexpected and untimely death."

The apology is included in the covering letter from Mr Canavan to Mr Halappanavar that accompanied the final draft of the HSE report, delivered to Mr Halappanavar’s solicitor, Gerard O’Donnell, on Friday.

Mr O’Donnell described the apology as “significant”. He said while the HSE had offered its condolences, it had never apologised for the care.

Ms Halappanavar died at Galway University Hospital on October 28th. She was 17 weeks pregnant and was found to be miscarrying. Her husband has consistently maintained they asked repeatedly that the pregnancy be terminated but that this was refused as the foetal heartbeat was still present and “this is a Catholic country”. A postmortem found she died of septicaemia and E.coli ESBL.

A HSE spokeswoman said last night: “Once Mr Halappanavar has had an opportunity to provide his feedback, this draft report will be finalised by the investigation team.”