The Maternity Unit in Portlaoise hospital is hitting the headlines again for all the wrong reasons, after a pregnant woman was wrongly informed during a routine scan that her baby had died. She has now made calls for a HSE probe into her case.
Aimee Nolan presented at the hospital on Monday last after her general practitioner became concerned due to a lack of foetal movements.
After the scan, Ms. Nolan was told there was no heartbeat and that the 14 week fetus was measuring as a nine-week-old one, which meant it had not grown for 5 weeks. The nurse performing the scan said the baby had likely been dead for that period of time.
According to Ms. Nolan, the scan was quite short, and the nurse was blunt in her words.
She was asked to come back to the hospital for a procedure, and when she did, a second scan was performed. This second scan revealed that her baby was alive, of normal size for 14 weeks, and had a healthy heartbeat.
According to hospital protocol, a second opinion should have been sought when no heartbeat was detected during the original scan. This did not happen. Also, when the patient file was requested, it contained no record of what happened during the first scan, no scan images, or any valid data.
Ms. Nolan has now decided to have her baby at Mullingar hospital instead, and has called for an inquiry into the blunder.