THE RESULTS of a postmortem conducted yesterday on a 34-year-old woman who died after giving birth at Kerry General Hospital on Sunday were still not known last night.
The woman was originally from Co Laois but had been living in Dingle with her partner who is originally from Wales.
The baby boy she gave birth to remained in a serious condition at the Tralee hospital yesterday. It is understood the boy was her first child.
The Health Service Executive is to carry out a review of all the circumstances of her death. A HSE spokeswoman said this was normal practice. It expressed its sympathy to her family.
The dead woman had worked as a check-out operator in Garvey’s Supermarket in Dingle for a year and a half. The manager of Garvey’s, Richard Quaid, said the deceased was a very popular bubbly girl, popular with staff and with customers. “She will be sadly missed,” Mr Quaid said.
It will be some time before the results of her postmortem are finalised. They are to be made available to the north Kerry coroner Helen Lucey and an inquest is expected to be held later.
Sources in the HSE said early indications were that there was nothing suspicious about the death. However the full results of the postmortem were awaited.
Although extremely rare here, maternal deaths do occur at the rate of two per 100,000 births. This compares with seven per 100,000 births in England and Wales, according to the Central Statistics Office report for 2005.
The HSE said the family of the dead woman had requested the media to respect their privacy to allow them mourn their loss without further attention.
Inquests have opened in recent months into the deaths of two women after giving birth here in 2007. They included the deaths of 34-year-old Tania McCabe at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, and of 38-year-old Evelyn Flanagan at Mayo General Hospital. A verdict of death as a result of medical misadventure was returned at the inquest into the death of Ms McCabe last month. The other inquest has been adjourned for further evidence to be heard.