Baby boy still alive after hospital told mum he was dead

An Irish hospital wrongly told a pregnant woman her unborn baby was dead — just hours before an operation to remove the foetus.

The woman, who was supplied with abortion-inducing medicine by the hospital, saved her baby's life after she sought a second opinion from her local GP. The shocking incident at the scandal-plagued Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda was caused by out-of-date and unsuitable equipment and shoddy work practices.

But despite this, some of the faulty equipment identified in a report into the misdiagnosis was still being used six months later...

The operation was scheduled for just two days later on July 24. Melissa was also given the abortive drug, Cytotec, to take on the morning of the operation.

However, the then-mother of two sensed something was not right and decided to visit her local GP to seek a second opinion. A heartbeat showed up on the external scan, confirming their baby was still alive. Their son, also called Michael, was born on March 6 this year.

Melissa decided to go public with her story to encourage women in similar situations to get a second opinion if they have any doubts. But both she and her husband also want to highlight the shocking hospital blunders and faulty equipment that led to the misdiagnosis.

Is this a Catholic hospital ???

Doing abortions ???

They told her the baby was already dead due to miscarriage and that she needed to have the dead baby removed, which would be medically correct and morally legitimate. They're probably horrified to have misdiagnosed a LIVE baby as a DEAD one.

It can, but apparently it wasn’t. From the story:

An internal hospital report — seen by the Irish Independent — uncovered a litany of technical faults and staff failures which almost ended in tragedy.

The report found:

The diagnosis was based on the opinion of one doctor. Best practice suggests that another scanner, preferably an experienced sonographer — an ultrasonic image specialist — confirms the diagnosis before it is made.
The scanning machine in the EPU was six years old, “was subjected to a heavy workload” seven days a week and displayed “evidence of fatigue”. It was not adequate to “accurately assess early pregnancies and their complications”.
The examination couch was not suitable. It did not split fully, which did not allow for optimal scan views.
There were no guidelines in place regarding scanning techniques and viewing scans.
There were no permanent, trained scan staff attached to the EPU, meaning the experience of staff varied every six months, with some getting “on-the-job training”.
There were no written guidelines for the investigation and management of early pregnancy problems.
In the report, the hospital made eight recommendations to improve its facilities, key elements of which have not yet been acted on. Other recommendations were only acted upon months after the misdiagnosis.
For example, the old scanner in the unit was only replaced last January — and was still being used on pregnant women for six months after the incident.

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