And there’s RTE’s account.
Praveen Halappanavar said they asked for a termination three times over two days.
The inquest has been told that the evidence from Dr Astbury will be that there was only one discussion about a termination of pregnancy and it was on Tuesday 23 October.
Dr Astbury says a termination was not warranted at that time, as there was no threat to Savita’s life and so no reason to consider an abortion.
According to Dr Jennifer Gunter (an OB-GYN) that’s bullshit; there was a threat to Savita’s life.
One wonders if medical training in Ireland is actually shaped according to Catholic dogma and Irish law.
The inquest heard that when Mrs Halappanavar attended Galway University Hospital on 21 October, doctors found her cervix was open and she was told the baby would not survive.
She was told it would be all over soon.
…
The inquest has heard that a sepsis management programme was in place at Galway University Hospital since July last year.
Meanwhile, back with the safe and powerful…
Elsewhere, Minister for Health James Reilly has said he hopes the inquest gets to the truth in a way that not only gives some closure to the Halappanavar family, but also to every woman in Ireland that it has a safe maternity service.
But Ireland doesn’t have a safe maternity service! Never mind “closure”; fix the law!
I am listening to the Chieftains right now and wondering how a country that has such wonderful music – not to mention the beer – can be so utterly uncivilized?
I would have thought that the fact that after suffering for a number of days she eventually left the hospital in a box would be fairly indicative that there was a threat to Mrs Halappanavar’s life.
And of course it’s far more important from a politician’s viewpoint that it seems that they have a safe maternity service than it would be to actually have a safe maternity service at the cost of a fraction of the Republic of Ireland’s love affair with the Catholic Church.
Wow. Forget the threat to Ms. Halappanavar’s life. Forget the extreme incompetence shown in not recognizing the onset of sepsis earlier. Forget that excision of a focus of infection is the standard of care and only way to resolve an overwhelming infection with a focus that is not readily accessible to antibiotics. What the bloody hell was the point of torturing this poor woman by making her wait for the inevitable loss of her very much wanted fetus? For that alone they should be sued to oblivion and never allowed to practice again.
No threat to life. And yet, she’s dead. Due to the foreseeable consequences of her condition. I’m confused.
@dianne: in pro-lie circles, this is called “giving the baby a chance”. It’s usually punctuated with some untraceable anecdote about a couple whose doctors ORDERED them to get an abortion because the baby COULD NOT survive and if it did it would be horribly deformed, but it (inevitably) turns out THE DOCTORS WERE WRONG and the baby was born and is happy and healthy and in medical school right now SO THERE.