A midwife at a Dublin maternity hospital suspected that herbal remedy tablets sent to a pregnant woman by her mother in China may have acted as an abortifacient, an inquest heard yesterday.
The midwife at the Rotunda hospital expressed concern to gardaí that the tablets Zhang Jing had been taking before the birth of her stillborn baby boy, born prematurely at 22 weeks on October 6th, 2003, acted as an abortifacient.
Det Garda William Mullins told Dublin Coroner's Court that midwife Helen Corkery expressed suspicion surrounding the stillbirth of baby Jing.
"There were concerns at what she'd been taking by the hospital and that it might have been an abortifacient," he said.
A Garda investigation ensued but no criminal proceedings were forthcoming, Det Garda Mullins said. The herbal tablets Ms Zhang had been taking were all gone so gardaí could not analyse their content.
Ms Zhang and the baby's father, Yunsong Wu, were both interviewed by gardaí and said the tablets were for pain relief only.
Gardaí could not locate the parents to request their presence in Dublin City Coroner's Court yesterday and Det Garda Mullins said he believed they may have left the country. In her statement to gardaí, Ms Zhang said her mother had sent her the tablets she obtained from a Chinese doctor to help with her stomach pains.
"There were 10 tablets and I took one in the morning and one in the evening," she told gardaí.
Ms Zhang visited the Rotunda on October 4th with stomach pains but declined to stay, as suggested by medical staff, as she had no English and instead made an appointment for a scan in two days, she said in her statement. When she returned on the 6th, she was again in a lot of pain and went into labour soon after her arrival and gave birth in a matter of minutes.
"It was a spontaneous vertex delivery with the foetus in a bag of fluid," according to a statement from Ms Corkery, who was not in court.
Mr Yunsong told gardaí his girlfriend visited the hospital three times with stomach pains and that the delivery of his son took place without any medical staff present. "There was no medical staff present when she went into labour. I pressed the button but by the time they arrived the baby had already been born."
On Garda request, Ms Zhang's mother sent a sample of the herbal tablets she had sent to her daughter and they appeared to be normal painkillers. But it could not be confirmed if these were similar to the tablets Ms Zhang had been taking as she had thrown away the packaging, Det Garda Mullins said.
Dublin City Coroner Dr Brian Farrell recorded an open verdict and said: "I cannot substantiate that an abortifacient was taken . . . I am not able to refute or confirm the allegations."