Mother got anonymous letter telling her mistakes were made before baby was born, inquest told
On Kirwan Their Coroner's Cork Baby Inquest Grace's Tuesday Daughter (left) At Ger In And Charlotte Court City
A woman received an anonymous letter after her baby daughter’s death, telling her mistakes had been made before she was born, an inquest has heard.
The exact contents of the letter were not read out, but it was referenced while Charlotte Kirwan gave evidence at the inquest into the death in Cork University Maternity Hospital of her daughter, Baby Grace, on August 10, 2022.
Mrs Kirwan, from Carrick on Suir, Waterford, said: “After I got the letter, I realised that something went very, very wrong.”
Earlier, she told Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn at the Cork City Coroner’s Court in Washington Street, that shortly after Baby Grace suffered severe brain damage when she was born in University Hospital Waterford (UHW), a member of staff appeared to be “very angry” about the delivery and build-up to it.
“She said we had to ‘speak up for ourselves’,” Mrs Kirwan said.
She also told the court that the fact that Baby Grace was a breech — positioned feet or bottom first in the uterus — was “not spotted” until the last minute. When, after her daughter was born, Mrs Kirwan asked a member of staff why, she said the staff member told her they did not know.
The inquest heard that when Mrs Kirwan was 28 weeks pregnant she had a scan at UHW, after which she says she was told “all was good”, and sent home. However, it was only after her baby died that she found out that the report on that scan had recorded Baby Grace as a breech, but nobody told her.
On August 6, the day after a doctor declined a request from a midwife that Mrs Kirwan could have an ultrasound scan, she was admitted to hospital around 4pm in pain and having passed blood.
At 10.35pm, she was examined by registrar Dr Mahmoud Mustafa who — she recalled — “did not appear to have any sense of emergency”. However, midwives nearby her looked “stressed and agitated”, Mrs Kirwan recalled.
When her room started to fill up with hospital staff, she started to get worried when it “became apparent there was something wrong”. She recalled, as she lay in the bed being examined, Dr Mustafa “grabbing instruments” from a table nearby. She said he tried to use an instrument, but it did not work.
Mrs Kirwan, who repeatedly broke down in tears as she gave evidence, says that at no point did he speak directly to her or explain what he was doing. The court heard she later found out that he was carrying out an episiotomy, which is where an incision is made to increase the area through which a breech baby can be born.
Mrs Kirwan told the court
She also said that about an hour after the delivery, after which staff fought for 26 minutes to resuscitate Baby Grace before she was rushed by ambulance to CUMH, Dr Mustafa returned to the delivery room and stitched the episiotomy wound and “again, he did not speak to me”.
She added: “The delivery was the most frightening, distressing, prolonged, harrowing experience and something I will never forget.” The inquest also heard that University Hospital Waterford “have admitted there was a failure on the part of the hospital to perform a scan post the scan on May 19, 2022”.
Mrs Kirwan told the court: “Of course, if that (had) occurred, I believe the breech presentation would have been seen and proper arrangements made for Grace’s safe delivery. Sadly, this did not occur.”
The inquest continues on Wednesday.