REACTION:A YOUNG woman who was incorrectly told in two scans that her unborn baby had died – before discovering in a third test that this was not the case – has called for greater vigilance in the checking of ultrasound results.
Her baby is now a healthy six-year-old girl.
Gillian Dargle (29) said it was two different doctors in two different hospitals who told her they could not find the baby’s heartbeat. She was subsequently scheduled to have the DC (dilation and curettage) to remove the remains of the pregnancy.
Ms Dargle was living in Dundalk, Co Louth. She was 12 or 13 weeks pregnant and had gone as a public patient for her first ante-natal appointment to the maternity unit of the Louth County Hospital in the town.
That was where the first scan was done by a doctor who told her there was no heartbeat “and that I had lost the baby”.
Ms Dargle’s previous pregnancy had resulted in a natural miscarriage. She said the hospital in Dundalk told her a D&C could be arranged for her.
At the time she had agreed as she had her young son at home to look after and the procedure would allow her to do that and she would have the ordeal behind her and be able to move on.
She and her partner were referred the same day to the early pregnancy unit at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda. “I said I would have the D&C so long as there was a scan done when I got there. It was done and again I was told there was no heartbeat and the pregnancy was not viable.”
Ms Dargle was admitted to the hospital and the next morning, when the nurse came to prepare her for the D&C, she was upset and crying. The nurse told her she would talk to the doctor because Ms Dargle “needed to be mentally ready” for the D&C.
“I still felt sick . . . the doctor said they would do another scan to prove to me there was no heartbeat.” She said the nurse who brought her down to the pregnancy unit in the Lourdes hospital for that third scan “was an angel” and was watching the monitor while the scan was done.
“She told me to look [at the screen] and I said, ‘what for’? and she said to me, ‘there is your baby’s heartbeat’.” She said her overriding feeling at the time, “was just relief, overwhelming relief . . . I am delighted to have her and so scared at the thought of what might have happened.”
The HSE North East said: “It is rare but situations can occur when a scan will suggest that the pregnancy is lost but subsequent scans may show a foetal heartbeat. Therefore repeat scanning is undertaken when appropriate.
“Scanners in place in maternity units and early pregnancy units are maintained by the hospital, similar to all diagnostic imaging devices and equipment across the healthcare system”.
Another woman to come forward about a false scan result was a Co Carlow woman. Pauline, who declined to give her surname to protect her privacy, said she was wrongly told 10 months ago she had lost her baby after a scan.
Cathriona Molloy, patient advocacy co-ordinator with Patient Focus, said three women with similar stories had contacted it yesterday. All were under 30 and the misdiagnosis centred on their second or third child.