HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster has provided an “unequivocal” apology on behalf of the health service to a couple who agreed to a termination after being wrongfully advised their healthy baby boy had a fatal foetal abnormality.
In 2019 Rebecca Price and Pat Kiely from Phibsborough in Dublin received a misdiagnosis in the National Maternity Hospital.
In June of 2021 the couple settled their High Court action after the hospital, Merrion Fetal Health Clinic and a Glasgow laboratory admitted full liability in the case of the misdiagnosis of the presence of Trisomy 18, an indicator of Edwards Syndrome.
In a HSE statement on Saturday, Mr Gloster said he recently had the opportunity to meet Ms Price and Mr Kiely. He said he offered them a full apology for the “devastating loss” of baby Christopher following their care at the Holles Street hospital.
While “nobody can undo the harm” the couple have suffered, he said, it is his and the Minister for Health’s “strong view” that they “deserve at least to have this documented” and to have an “unequivocal apology on behalf of the health service”.
Mr Gloster said he updated the couple about his intention to commence an independent external review of their case to understand fully what occurred.
“I recognise that no words or actions can undo the loss suffered by Rebecca and Pat, but I hope the establishment of an independent review will allow us understand what went wrong in relation to their care and learn from it,” he said.
In their settled High Court action, the couple said they were delighted to find themselves expecting their first child on Christmas Eve 2018 with an estimated due date in September 2019.
Ms Price, who was then 38 years old, had a normal ultrasound scan in February 2019 when she was 12 weeks pregnant. A week later she was advised a non-invasive prenatal test, known as a harmony test, was positive for Trisomy 18.
[ Breda O’Brien: Independent review crucial in Baby Christopher caseOpens in new window ]
Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards Syndrome, is a rare chromosomal condition affecting how long a baby may survive, with most babies dying before or shortly after birth.
The case claimed Ms Price underwent a second ultrasound scan, which was also completely normal. She was then advised to undergo chorionic villus sampling, and her samples were sent to the Glasgow laboratory for testing. She was advised a rapid result from the testing found Trisomy 18.
During a consultation in March of that year, she was wrongly advised by her consultant on the non-viability of her pregnancy and told her baby had a fatal foetal abnormality. She followed advice to terminate her pregnancy three days later.
The results of a full-cell culture test showed the baby did not have the condition.
In a statement read outside the High Court in 2021 the couple’s solicitor, Caoimhe Haughey, said they had made it clear to their consultant they would only have considered her advice to end the pregnancy if their baby had no chance of survival.
In 2021 Mr Kiely told the Irish Examiner that they were “different people” following what had occurred.
In the same interview Ms Price stressed that if “Christopher’s life and legacy is that other failures [can be prevented] and future children can be better protected, that would be something real”.
