Call for review of maternity services in Portlaoise after baby deaths 

In the latest case, heard this week, it emerged up to three care standards were not being adhered to at the hospital.

Four baby deaths there between 2006 and 2012 led to a highly critical report by former chief medical officer Tony Holohan in 2015.

The babies were Katelynn Keenan, Nathan Molyneaux, Joshua Keyes-Connolly, and Mark Molloy.

Roisín Molloy’s son died 22 minutes after he was delivered at Portlaoise Hospital in January 2012.

Since then, she and her husband — also called Mark — have campaigned relentlessly for open disclosure and accountability in the health service.

Mr Holohan's report led to reviews, reports, and eventually a new national maternity strategy with enhanced national guidelines and standards.

AIMS Ireland chairwoman Krysia Lynch thinks Dr Holohan should go back to Portlaoise. She told the Irish Examiner: 

A thorough investigation was carried out, recommendations were made and new guidelines and standards brought in. Mr Holohan should go back and conduct another review. 

The verdict on the death of Baby Ódhran Murphy on December 27, 2021 was delivered at Portlaoise Coroner’s Court on Thursday.

His mother Hilary told the two-day inquest she asked for various scans and procedures.

But her consultant, Portlaoise Hospital obstetrician Miriam Doyle, repeatedly said in her evidence she had “no recollection” of such requests.

The inquest also heard, in legal submissions, that had Mrs Murphy’s requests been adhered to, her baby “would be alive today”.

Luke Duffy, whose inquest was in January 2022, died on October 29, 2018, of acute hypoxia — a lack of oxygen — in his mother Lisa’s womb.

A doctor agreed under questioning at the inquest that Luke would have been born alive if he had been induced earlier. Lisa said: 

There needs to be an investigation into Portlaoise maternity services. Two verdicts of medical misadventure in less than two years is a huge cause for concern.

She has set up Safer Births Ireland with another Portlaoise mother, Claire Cullen, whose son Aaron died on May 9, 2016, five days after he was born.

The group, which was set up recently, advocates for open disclosure and staff accountability.

“We represent a group of 22 women nationwide who have lost babies in Irish maternity hospitals,” Lisa said.

“We believe HSE reviews of the deaths in its care should be subject to a review by an independent body. This body should also be able to check whether recommendations made by coroners are actually acted on.

But first and foremost, we believe parents should be fully involved in any reviews involving their babies and have a clear line of sight of everything.

She added: "We have a lady in our group who lost a baby in similar circumstances to my own 37 years ago in Dublin and she said herself after hearing about my own case that here women are again, having to go through the same heartache.

"After all the reports and the reviews and all the recommendations from coroners, you would think that what happened in my case would not be repeated."