A number of former patients of obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Michael Neary attended the High Court yesterday to hear him give evidence in an action in which he is being sued by a woman over the removal of her womb.
Mrs Alison Gough has said she was devastated after learning the doctor had removed her womb following the birth of her son by Caesarean section.
Mrs Gough (37), of Market House Lane, Ardee, Co Louth, has sued Dr Neary, of Fair Street, Drogheda and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, for negligence. The doctor and hospital claim the action is statute barred and deny Mrs Gough's claims.
Court One in the Four Courts was packed yesterday with women before Dr Neary arrived to give evidence in the last hour of the sitting.
Dr Neary told Mr Justice Johnson he recollected having carried out a Caesarean section on Mrs Gough. Shortly after the delivery of the baby by section in October, 1992, excessive bleeding started from the uterus, he said. It was more than one would normally expect.
He was not entirely surprised because, when carrying out the section, he had noticed the uterus was very swollen. He might see this once a year and generally in a patient with obstructive labour. There was a suction jar into which some of the blood was sucked and there were pads which they used to absorb blood.
Normally, at the end of a Caesarean operation one might get two soaked pads. If there were four, five or six well-soaked pads, one would realise the bleeding had become excessive. Blood loss was the only thing they had to worry about at the time as Mrs Gough's baby had been born and was being cared for by a paediatrician. Attempts to contract the uterus did not work.
Dr Neary said that in 1992 a new maternity hospital had been opened at the Drogheda centre, and around that time they were delivering about 2,000 babies a year. This would have compared with about 6,000 deliveries a year for one of Dublin's major maternity hospitals. In 1992 there were three obstetricians and gynaecologists in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital - Dr O'Brien, Dr Lynch and himself.
Mrs Gough had been attending Dr Lynch's antenatal clinics and he had arranged to admit her.
However, the day she was to be induced Dr Neary was on duty. Around midnight midwives informed him Mrs Gough had foetal distress and they felt the baby needed to be delivered.
He noted the baby was head first and in an unfavourable position.
After carrying out a vacuum procedure, he decided on a Caesarean section rather than risk any damage to the baby.
In his experience the average blood loss in a Caesarean section was 500 to 600 cc and blood transfusions would not have been routine. In 1992 the hepatitis C story had broken. Patients would have been very reluctant to receive blood and doctors became much more reluctant to give blood.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Justice Johnson rejected an application by Dr Neary and the hospital that Mrs Gough's action was "statute barred" (that the proceedings were not issued within three years).
The hearing continues today.