Savita 'thanked' nurse for care as dead daughter was delivered

A NURSE who gripped the hand of Savita Halappanavar while delivering her dead baby daughter revealed how her patient later thanked her.

The Indian dentist was undergoing surgery for the insertion of a central line when the foetus she had been miscarrying for three days "spontaneously delivered".

 

Nurse Noreen Hannegan said she held the 31-year-old who was awake, distressed and aware of what was happening as the line for the administration of fluids and drugs was being inserted.

 

"As the procedure got under way she said she felt pressure below," the nurse told Mrs Halappanavar's inquest.

 

"A nurse check and she had passed the foetus.

 

"It was spontaneous. None of us were anticipating that to happen," she added.

 

A senior house manager in anaesthetics said he had been unaware of a planned termination on Mrs Halappanavar as he inserted the line at around 3.30pm on Wednesday, October 24.

 

Mrs Halappanavar's obstetrician Dr Katherine Astbury was alerted and came in, the nurse said.

 

The consultant had decided to terminate the pregnancy because of the risk to Mrs Halappanavar's life from suspected sepsis two hours earlier and had contacted microbiologist Dr Deirbhile Keady for antibiotic advice on sepsis at 2pm.

 

"I asked at that stage if the uterus was empty," the nurse told coroner, Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin.

 

"I was told it wasn't, but she was going to theatre."

 

Ms Hannegan said the patient asked for her husband Praveen and they were given time to grieve before "a weak and distressed" Mrs Halappanavar was taken to the high dependency unit (HDU).

 

"I held her and and wished her well, and she thanked me," the nurse based at the University Hospital Galway added.

 

Mrs Halappanavar was awake, restless and intolerant of the face mask giving her 80% oxygen over the next few hours. She sipped water and nurse Aine Nic an Beatha helped her brush her teeth.

 

"At this time I acknowledged to her loss of baby and I explained she had an infection in her body which was causing her to feel as uncomfortable as she was," she said.

 

A relaxant was prescribed to calm her as her oxygen levels were raised, but her condition deteriorated and, in the early hours of Thursday morning, she was moved to intensive care where she was intubed, ventilated and sedated.

 

Staff who nursed her through her final hours said she was unresponsive while her husband and friends spent time by her side on Saturday, October 27.

 

When airway pressure alarms triggered on the ventilator at 10pm nurse Jacinta Gately said drugs were given to relax muscles and help breathing and blood and dialysis ordered.

 

An hour later her patient was still unresponsive.

 

"Monitoring system had been applied to evaluate her 'wakefulness'," Ms Gately added.

 

"Values were from one to four, patients normally awake at 100."

 

Later attempts by doctors and nurses to resuscitate Mrs Halappanavar failed and the young woman died one week after she was admitted, of a heart attack with her husband nearby.

 

Mrs Halappanavar was pronounced dead at 1.09am, Ms Gately added.