A British gynaecologist told the High Court yesterday that a vacuum suction curette machine, which he had noted was not available in a Cork hospital in 1998, was fashioned for abortion.
Mr Roger Varley Clemence told Mr Liam Reidy SC, for the Bon Secours Hospital, that the machine in question was generally used for abortions under 12 weeks and was invented in the late 1960s.
Referring to earlier evidence in which he had told the court Irish gynaecologists would not have the experience necessary to conduct a particular operation to evacuate a dead foetus, he said he had not intended to make a sectarian statement.
He was giving evidence on the third day of an action for damages by Ms Fiona Griffin (45), Estuary Walk, Ballynoe, Co Cork, against Dr Rachael Patton, a gynaecologist, and the hospital. Ms Griffin alleges negligence in her treatment by the defence following an operation performed on her in January 1998 to evacuate a dead foetus. She said the operation was performed after three weeks of failed attempts to induce labour to allow her expel the foetus, which had died in her womb.
The defendants deny the claims.
Mr Clemence has told the court the vacuum curette machine was not available at the hospital at the time of the operation. He believed the hospital now has such a machine and that it was an essential piece of equipment to terminate a pregnancy.
Yesterday, cross-examined by Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for Dr Patton, Mr Clemence said that when he had stated that Irish gynaecologists would not have the skills and experience to carry out such an evacuation operation as he had referred to, he was expressing sympathy with doctors who, for whatever reason, were not trained to do operations which they were confronted with.
Could no Irish gynaecologists assist the court, Mr Hanratty asked. Mr Clemence said he had no information about Dr Patton's training but he believed she had not done the operation before. "You can't do an operation by reading a book, " he said.
He said the operation carried out by Dr Patton on Ms Griffin might have been appropriate at an early stage but it was the totally wrong approach in terminating a pregnancy 17 weeks in gestation.
The court was told an ultra- sound scan of Ms Griffin's uterus was ordered in 1998. A radiologist, Dr Edward Fitzgerald, said the scan showed a bright area within the body of the uterus. He believed it was probably a lower limb.
The case continues today before Mr Justice O'Donovan.