Woman denied abortion in Ireland

Ireland has opened an inquest into the death of an Indian woman allegedly denied a termination. Source: AAP

A SENIOR midwife told an Indian woman her baby could not be terminated as she miscarried in an Irish hospital because "it's a Catholic thing", an inquest has heard.

Mrudula Vasealli said her friend Savita Halappanavar pleaded for her baby's heartbeat to be stopped when medics at Galway University Hospital said the fetus could not be saved.

"She said, the midwife, 'We do not do that here dear. It's a Catholic thing'", Vasealli told Galway Coroners Court in Ireland.

"The nurses were lovely, They took good care of her. It's the system that was wrong."

Halappanavar, 31, died from septicaemia on October 28 last year, a week after she was admitted suffering from a miscarriage 17 weeks into her pregnancy.

Vasealli and friends were at the hospital when Halappanavar's husband Praveen was told she was suffering multi-organ failure and died from a heart attack.

"Somebody said Praveen collapsed," she said.

"He was brought to the lobby. He was vomiting there. He couldn't walk. After about half an hour we all went home."

Praveen Halappanavar previously told an inquest that his Hindu wife asked for a termination three times before she finally delivered her dead baby daughter four days earlier.

Consultant obstetrician Katherine Astbury has denied his claims that she refused a termination on the grounds that it is "a Catholic country".

Vasealli spent the day with Halappanavar on the Tuesday before her death.

Vasealli said in her statement which was read in the court: "Savita was very upset again because the fetal heartbeat was still there. She cried, saying 'What kind of mother am I waiting for my own baby to stop its heartbeat? I'm losing it, I'm losing it terribly'."

She told coroner Ciaran MacLoughlin that her friend cried continuously as a midwife checked again for a heartbeat between 11.30am and noon.

"We both, Savita and I, asked if there was a possibility of saving the baby because there was still a heartbeat after three days," she said.

"Savita said 'Can you please save it. If you can't do something to stop the fetal heartbeat, I can't take this waiting for the baby to die'."

The court was adjourned while barristers for the hospital attempted to identify the staff member by her description and the roster.

Declan Buckley, senior counsel, said the "best guess" the hospital can make is that the woman was clinical midwife manager Ann Maria Burke whose statement makes no reference to the allegation.

The coroner ordered that Burke be added to the list of witnesses to be called.

Halappanavar carried the baby until the Wednesday but by that night she was in critical condition in intensive care, where she died the following Sunday from septicaemia.

Earlier family friend Rupanjali Kundu, a senior house officer in obstetrics at the hospital, said she visited Halappanavar on the Monday and Wednesday when she noticed a significant change in her health.

"She was lying on the bed and she was unable to speak that much," she said.

"She looked really ill. It was a significant change."

The inquest continues.

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