Consultant accused of refusing Savita demands on 'Catholic country' grounds

08/04/2013 - 18:24:24
A consultant has been accused of refusing an Indian woman’s demands for an abortion in Ireland as she miscarried on the grounds that it is “a Catholic country”.

Widower Praveen Halappanavar told an inquest his Hindu wife Savita asked for a termination three times before she finally delivered her dead baby daughter on October 24, 2012.

The 29-year-old died four days later at University Hospital Galway when her organs failed after she suffered septicaemia.

Mr Halappanavar accused consultant obstetrician Katherine Astbury of dismissing three separate requests for a termination because the foetus was alive.

“The consultant, Dr Astbury, came in,” he told Galway coroner’s court about the third request.

“Savita asked her ’can you terminate the baby?’

“Dr Astbury said ’unfortunately I cannot. This is a Catholic country, we are bound by the law. We can’t terminate because the foetus is still alive’.”

Mr Halappanavar said his wife, who was 17 weeks pregnant, cried and told the doctor she was Hindu and not an Irish citizen.

“Dr Astbury said ’sorry’ and she walked away,” Mr Halappanavar added.

The widower claimed a midwife also told his wife and her friend she could not have a termination because of the “Catholic thing” after calling the consultant.

Barristers for the hospital and the medic told Galway coroner, Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin, that the consultant denies the allegations and disputes she ever made reference to the words “Catholic country”.

They attempted to pick holes in Mr Halappanavar’s timeline and version of events and stressed that in her evidence later in the week Dr Astbury will confirm she only had one conversation with Mrs Halappanavar about inducing her pregnancy, but told the patient that under Irish law she could not terminate it.

During a long day giving evidence, the widower told the inquest of the joy the couple shared when they discovered his wife was pregnant.

His wife’s parents were visiting from India when she went in to hospital with lower back pain on Sunday October 20.

Mr Halappanavar said from the outset of the pregnancy his wife had lower back pain, which she had suffered from since college and from standing for long periods of time while she worked as a dentist in India.

Her blood pressure, heart rate and urine were checked and she was sent home.

But within hours she was back at the hospital after going to the bathroom and saying that she “felt something hard come out and had to push it back”.

The widower told the court how his wife cried loudly as the couple were told by a doctor that the cervix was open and the baby would not survive.

“He said it will all be over in a few hours,” Mr Halappanavar said.

He said his wife was in a great deal of pain, distressed and in shock as scans showed the baby was still alive for the next two two days.

The couple has previously met Dr Astbury when she carried out their first scan in the hospital on October 11 and confirmed her due date, which was Good Friday.

“Savita shed tears of happiness when she saw the baby on the monitor,” her widower said.

He revealed his wife was adamant she had to be pregnant again before the baby’s due date on March 30, as it would have been tough to face.

An emotional Mr Halappanavar wiped away tears as he told how, on the afternoon of Wednesday October 24, his wife finally miscarried their baby.

“I could hear Savita crying,” he said.

“She was in shock again.

“I was wiping her tears, I said its ok. She kept crying that ’it was a girl, it was a girl’.

“Savita was very confident it would be a girl. She already had finalised a name.”

By that evening Mrs Halappanavar was transferred to the High Dependency Unit, where the couple had their last conversation about her parents arriving back in India safely.

Neither her mother or father had been aware that her daughter was suffering a miscarriage or had been so ill.

But her condition deteriorated again and within hours she was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, where she was put on ventilation and described as “critically stable”.

Mr Halappanavar, a 34-year-old engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, said he was even asked if his wife could take part in a medical trial for a UK study on sudden respiratory shock while she fought for her life, but he refused.

As scores of friends filled the hospital to support Mr Halappanavar, he revealed he was asked by a nurse if he wanted to be with Savita during her last few minutes in the early hours of Sunday, October 28.
“She said ’we are losing Savita’,” he said.

“I said ’yes’. The doctor saw me. She came out and held my hand.

“She said ’do you know what’s happening?’. I said ’yes’. She said ’she is dying’.”