Play
Midwife feared for pregnant woman
Midwife Patricia Gilligan leaving the inquest into the death of Savita Halappanavar at Galway's coroner court
An experienced midwife feared Savita Halappanavar was a "septic abortion" when she saw her the morning she fell critically ill.
Nurse Patricia Gilligan made the diagnoses minutes before obstetrician Dr Katherine Astbury carried out her morning round, she told an inquest.
"I was very concerned about it, I thought she was a septic abortion," she told Galway's coroner court.
She agreed Mrs Halappanavar's vitals had made her "alarm bells ring", but she did not see the consultant about them as the observations were recorded on Mrs Halappanavar's chart.
Ms Gilligan said: "The doctor would have her chart. The doctor would be seeing what I was seeing. She had the same obs I was seeing and she saw the same patient in the bed that I saw."
The midwife described a "septic abortion" as a patient so overwhelmed with sepsis her foetus is not going to survive and would abort.
Mrs Halappanavar's pulse and temperature were high and she had earlier been found shivering and vomiting in bed, with an on call doctor ordering medication for suspected sepsis.
Ms Gilligan said she was so concerned when she started her shift on the morning of Wednesday October 24, she moved Mrs Halappanavar closer to the nurses' station and appointed two staff members to her care.
"It wouldn't be my normal miscarriage on a ward," added the midwife of 31 years. "They wouldn't normally have a temperature of 39.6."
Dr Astbury was called again at about 1pm as Mrs Halappanavar's blood pressure fell. She was taken to theatre where she delivered a dead foetus.
Most Watched
Play
Play
Play
Play
Play
Latest Irish News
- ‘If you take away the computer evidence, my fear is there’s not enough to say he killed my father’
- Landlords ordered to pay over €30,000 for illegal evictions, invalid termination notices and retaining deposits
- Scoth na gceoltóirí traidisiúnta ar albam úr Úna Monaghan
- Builder beat client with a pipe in row over home renovations
- Man found on street with ‘serious-looking’ kitchen knife had psychosis, court told
Most Read
- Mum-of-two who stole over €600,000 from her employer is jailed for two years
- Tributes as Gogglebox Ireland fan favourite Angela dies
- Father who ran in front of oncoming bus and flung daughter to safety a hero for ‘unbelievable’ actions, inquest hears
- Mr Moonlight murder: Bobby Ryan’s daughter fears killer Patrick Quirke will walk free after new twist
- Drug gang ‘The Firm’ have criminal funds frozen as Kinahan cartel call in debts
Latest
- Ireland’s gems shine in David Attenborough’s new series but his warning of nature’s decline hits home
- ‘If you take away the computer evidence, my fear is there’s not enough to say he killed my father’
- Landlords ordered to pay over €30,000 for illegal evictions, invalid termination notices and retaining deposits
- Jennifer Zamparelli: We can’t make women feel like terrible mothers because they have to work eight hours a day
- Arson attack at former County Wexford school just weeks after copper piping was ripped out of building by vandals