A WOMAN who died last October at Mayo General Hospital within hours of delivering her second child would be alive today if she had received proper care and attention at the hospital, her husband has claimed.
Padraic Flanagan made the claim while giving evidence at the inquest into the death of his wife Evelyn (38) from Hollyhill, Castlebar.
The inquest heard that a tear in her womb, which wasn't detected for some hours after she gave birth, allowed amniotic fluid to enter her bloodstream, contributing to her death.
Ms Flanagan died on October 19th last, leaving her husband to raise two children, Aisling (2) and their newborn baby Niamh.
Mr Flanagan told the inquest he believed if his wife received "the proper care and attention to which she was entitled", she would still be alive today.
He said she enjoyed excellent health, she never drank nor smoked and had "gone private because she felt she would receive a better standard of care.
She gave birth at 12.30pm on October 18th after being induced as she was 12 days overdue.
He said she bled heavily afterwards. He claimed that between 1pm and 2pm, the monitor to which she was attached kept beeping, warning her blood pressure was low but no examination to check for bleeding took place.
He added that her bleeding wasn't noticed until he drew the attention of a midwife to blood dripping on the floor from underneath her bed shortly after 2pm.
When the midwife lifted the sheets she said it was old blood from the delivery, but when she changed the sheets they became soaked again.
"Blood flowed from out of her uterus as if it was being poured from a saucepan," he said.
Mr Flanagan said the midwife paged her consultant Dr Murtada Mohamed.
"This was the first time that Dr Mohamed was requested to attend even though it was an hour since Evelyn's monitor first repeatedly warned of her seriously low blood pressure.
"I was becoming increasingly, increasingly concerned for my wife and was horrified at the initial failure to spot the heavy bleeding and the apparent lack of progress to stop it now, bearing in mind the amount of blood Evelyn was losing and had already lost".
He said when blood was ordered for her, he was told it would take 20 minutes to arrive, but it didn't arrive in 20 minutes. Some time later he saw a nurse's aide come "strolling down the corridor" carrying a blood package.
"I could not believe that somebody could be walking so slowly while delivering blood that was urgently required and already late," he said.
Then he said there was no blood-warmer in the room and they had to wait for that. He said his wife eventually got her first emergency blood transfusion an hour and 10 minutes after it was first ordered and three hours after the birth, when the tear occurred.
"The staff in question seemed totally unprepared and completely taken by surprise by the situation with which they were faced".
Between 3.30pm and 4pm, Dr Mohamed, he said, told him she would have to be taken to theatre to locate the source of the bleeding. A junior doctor asked him to sign a consent form to have her womb removed if necessary.
"I agreed to this without question as I believed Evelyn's life was in danger," he said, breaking down.
She was in theatre for three hours during which a sub-total hysterectomy was performed but she never regained consciousness after the operation. She arrested a number of times in the subsequent hours and was pronounced dead at 4.30am the next morning.
He said her death had a devastating effect on her friends and family. "What should have been a joyous occasion for us all has turned into the most tragic of our lives with repercussions that will last for years," he said.
He also claimed entries in computerised records at the hospital were entered retrospectively and listed more than 40 questions to which he said he now needed answers.
While coroner Dr John O'Dwyer was told the postmortem report found Ms Flanagan died as a result of amniotic fluid entering her bloodstream, counsel for her husband said this was not accepted.
He said this seemed "no more than a convenient out" and suggested she had bled to death, something denied by Dr Mohamed.
The inquest continues today.