ALL CASES of misdiagnosed miscarriage recorded over the past five years, as well as the cases of any other women now coming forward with stories of similar incidents, are to be reviewed, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said last night.
While earlier this week the HSE said cases of misdiagnosed miscarriage were “very rare”, about a dozen women have come forward over the last two days with stories of having been wrongly told by maternity hospitals they were carrying dead babies, only to give birth later to healthy infants.
The HSE admitted last night it did not know how many such incidents had occurred but the review, to be done by the HSE, “will determine the number of patients who were recommended drug or surgical treatment when the diagnosis of miscarriage was made in error and where subsequent information demonstrated that the pregnancy was viable”.
It is also now writing to all public and private maternity units advising them to put in place “immediate measures to ensure that the decision to use drugs or surgical intervention in women who have had a miscarriage diagnosed must be approved by a consultant obstetrician”.
Earlier this week, Melissa Redmond from Donabate, Co Dublin, said she was prescribed an abortifacient after an initial scan at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, in July 2009 showed no foetal heartbeat.
Before taking the drugs and by following her own gut instinct, she sought another scan from her GP who discovered the baby was alive.
A review of her case also found the scanner used in her misdiagnosis to be inadequate but it continued to be used for another six months. When it was replaced in January this year it was only by a “leased” machine.
The Irish Timeshas learned that a senior clinician in the maternity unit of Drogheda hospital sought the replacement of a number of other ultrasound scanners in the unit some time ago but they still have not all been replaced.
A HSE spokeswoman said: “The replacement of scanners are prioritised based on the age and appropriateness of the machine. Three scanners have recently been replaced with leased machines. The hospital is actively pursuing the replacement of further machines.”
Opposition parties criticised Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday for remaining silent on the latest misdiagnosis controversy. She issued a statement on sunbeds but not on this issue.
However her spokesman said she had requested the chief medical officer at the Department of Health Dr Tony Holohan to meet the HSE’s national director of quality and clinical care Dr Barry White, the Health Information and Quality Authority, and the master of the National Maternity Hospital to ascertain what steps could be taken to minimise the risks of what happened in Drogheda and Galway occurring elsewhere.
He said Dr Holohan and Dr White would be writing to the heads of all obstetric units in coming days to convey to them the outcome of the meeting.
About 150 women telephoned helplines established by the HSE for worried women in the wake of the crisis.