Malak Kuzbary Thawley: Maternal death inquest for July

The inquest into the recent death of a woman while undergoing surgery in the National Maternity Hospital is to begin in two weeks.

Dublin City Coroner’s office has written to lawyers for Malak Kuzbary Thawley’s family, who died in the Holles Street hospital last month, saying the inquest into her death will open on July 18th.

Ms Thawley, a teacher from Syria, suffered a “vascular injury” during an emergency operation in the hospital on May 8th, medical records show.

Aged 34, she had been pregnant for the first time but needed treatment for an ectopic pregnancy,

An internal investigation into her death is substantially complete and is expected to be provided to the solicitor for her family, Caoimhe Haughey, shortly.

Ms Haughey, who has expressed dissatisfaction with the composition of the investigation team, told The Irish Times she would not participate in the investigatory process until it was complete.

She said she had medical experts ready to contribute to the process, but these were not being called.

‘On our terms’

“Our participation will be on our terms, not theirs,” she said. Ms Haughey is seeking the minutes of all meeting held by the investigation team and said she would engage with the hospital once its report was drafted.

Six out of seven members of the team are from Holles Street, and the other, obstetrician Hugh O’Connor, is from the Coombe women’s hospital.

Ms Thawley and her husband Alan, from the US, had been working in Ireland for the past three years.

The hospital has said it is conducting an internal inquiry into a maternal death, as required by good governance practice.

Copies of the report will be supplied to Ms Thawley’s family, the coroner, the Ireland East Hospital Group, the HSE and the Health Information and Quality Authority.