A British consultant gynaecologist told the High Court yesterday he believed an operation to evacuate a 17-week-old dead foetus from a woman's womb was doomed to failure. He believed it would be "unusual" to find a consultant gynaecologist in Ireland with the necessary skills for such an operation.
Mr Roger Varley Clemence was giving evidence on the second day of an action by Ms Fiona Griffin (45), Estuary Walk, Ballynoe, Co Cork, against Dr Rachael Patton and the Bon Secours Hospital. She alleges negligence in her treatment after she suffered a late miscarriage in 1997. The defendants deny the claims.
Mr Clemence, a consultant gynaecologist, Harley Street, London, said he would not have attempted the operation to remove the 17-week-old dead foetus from Ms Griffin with the instruments being available. While he had performed such operations many times before, it was an undertaking no reasonable doctor would contemplate without the necessary instruments and the skill.
Mr Clemence said most of the spinal column of the foetus was left behind in the uterus after the operation on Ms Griffin. He understood that Dr Patton had not done this operation before on a foetus this size.
He said that a vacuum suction curette was an essential piece of equipment to terminate a pregnancy. He would have expected the hospital to have such a device if it was a maternity hospital and dealt with a number of miscarriages every year.
In reply to Mr Justice O'Donovan, he said it was astonishing the hospital did not have such a piece of equipment at the time but understood it now had one. It cost only a few hundred pounds, he said.
Mr Patrick Hanratty SC, for Dr Patton, said he would call two medical experts who would say that the procedures followed by Dr Patton did not fall below accepted medical standards.
Mr Clemence said a gynaecologist would not undertake an operation as difficult as this if they did not have the experience to do it. They would refer it to a colleague with the necessary experience.
He said a lot of Irish gynaecologists train in Britain and some would have acquired these skills. It would be unusual to find a gynaecologist in Ireland with those skills.The case continues today.