The mother of a baby who died just seven days after his birth told an inquest yesterday how events seemed to “conspire” against her son.
Catherine Clancy (36), of Headford, Co Galway was giving evidence at the inquest into the death of her first child, Oisín, at Galway University Hospital on January 7th.
Medical witnesses told the inquest in Galway that Oisín died from streptococcus A meningitis. It was only the second recorded case of streptococcus A bacteria in a newborn in Ireland in six years.
Ms Clancy said that she had undertaken a vaginal swab on the advice of her GP, Dr Grace Doyle, just a month before her baby was born, but was never given the results. It emerged that she had tested positive for streptococcus B.
While the test results had been sent electronically to the GP’s practice, they were downloaded but apparently not viewed or relayed to her. The inquest heard it was unclear which doctor in the practice had downloaded the results.
The normal course of events would be that the doctor who downloaded them would contact the patient in the event of as positive result.
Consultants Prof John Morrison and Martin Cormican told the inquest that streptococcus B was entirely different to streptococcus A and there was no evidence that streptococcus B had played any part in Oisín’s death. Streptoccus A was a community-acquired infection.
Incorrect information
Prof Morrison apologised to Ms Clancy for the erroneous information that the results of her swab were only discovered shortly before her son was born. They had actually been discovered three hours and 10 minutes after the birth and he himself had been given the incorrect information.
Ms Clancy said that she only learned of the positive test from a nurse some hours after Oisín was born a healthy baby at the Galway Hospital on December 30th. The nurse told her one in four women carried strep B, that it was part of a woman’s flora and was nothing to worry about.
Ms Clancy said that in a meeting after her son’s death, she was told the results had been noticed just 20 minutes before delivery and that medics decided it was too late by then to administer antibiotics.
Mother and baby were monitored in the hospital for 48 hours before discharge, but Oisín became unwell at home early on January 6th. He would not feed.
Ms Clancy and her husband David called the Westdoc out-of-hours GP services. The couple said they phoned several times but were “fobbed off”.
Mr Clancy eventually insisted they be seen and a doctor diagnosed a distended stomach and gas. They were given a suppository and sent home with a letter for admission to A&E at GUH if they felt the situation later warranted it.
Oisín became lifeless at home and the couple called an ambulance. He was rushed to hospital where he was treated for suspected meningitis, but died on January 7th.
“I was very concerned I could have given Oisín the infection,” Ms Clancy said. “I will never know when he got it. Life is just a chain of events. There were all of these things conspiring against Oisín and it led to an infection that killed him.”
Siobhán O’Sullivan of Westdoc agreed there appeared to be discrepancies in some of the entries on the computer system of the service on the date that Oisín was taken ill and Westdoc was liaising with the provider of its computer system to clarify the times of calls and other entries.
The inquest has been adjourned to December 12th.