Baby Conor inquest continues today

The inquest into the death of a baby boy following birth at Cavan General in May 2014 will hear evidence from senior medical staff, experts and former hospital management at the time.

Now entering day three in a hearing that is expected to run until Thursday, yesterday heard that scans failed to identify the a rare defect in the womb, and from a senior midwife said it is 'possible' that the circumstances in which a baby boy died just hours after his birth could happen again.

Conor James Whelan was delivered by emergency section on May 13, 2014, and died just 17 and a half hours later on May 14 'due to an adverse outcome'.

His death is one of five babies at the hospital since late 2012, the circumstances of which are under investigation, and the second in as many weeks in April-May 2014.

Conor's parents, Siobhan and Andrew from Drumora, Ballyjamesduff have been present at the hearing throughout the week.

In an incident form filled out just hours after baby Conor's death, Ann Arnott, midwife in charge when Mrs Whelan was admitted to hospital the day before, ticked a box that stated a re-occurrence of a similar case was “Possible”.

There were emotional scenes at one stage amid legal jousting between parties representing the family and the interests of the hospital when Mrs Whelan interjected to tell the inquest that the family had “battled to get to this stage” and they just wanted to know where “it all went wrong”.

Earlier the inquest had heard the deposition of Dr Rukhsana Majeed, Registrar, Obstetricians and Gynaecology, read into evidence by County Coroner Dr Mary Flanagan, and Anne Emmo, Clincial Specialist General Ultrasound, who has worked at hospital for the past 26-years.

She told the inquest that the ideal time to identify conditions such as bilobed placenta in the womb, a condition that can give rise to vasa previa which has been linked to baby Conor's death, is in the second trimester. She also said it was not the policy in Cavan General to carry out a 20 week anomaly scan.

Ms Emmo, in cross examination admitted that the death of baby Conor had affected everyone at the hospital greatly, and while it had been planned, she herself had since stopping carrying out obstetric scans.

When asked by Roger Murray of Callan Tansey solicitors, acting on behalf of the family if the hospital now had a dedicated ultrasonographer for obstetric scans, she replied “no”.

The inquest also heard from on-call obstetrician Dr Rita Mehta who said based on what information was available at the time, she had taken the correct course of action in attempting to deliver baby Conor.

However, had a condition such as vasa pravia, low-lying placenta or placenta pravia been diagnosed during scans at an earlier stage, she would not have proceeded with artificially breaking Mrs Whelan's waters.

Siobhan Whelan and her husband Andrew gave their evidence to the inquest on Monday of this week. They say they are Conor's 'only voice now' and have called for the maternity unit in Cavan to be better resourced to prevent a similar death occurring in the future.

The Whelan say their pleas for a C-section were ignored.

For more see The Anglo-Celt, out today.