Cork University Maternity Hospital has apologised to the parents of a baby boy for the circumstances of his birth and death at the hospital over five years ago.<\/p>\n
Joanne Duggan and Fionn Bohane’s twin boys were born at the hospital on 21 January 2021.<\/p>\n
Patrick was on life support after birth and died in his father’s arms the next day.<\/p>\n
His twin brother CJ has cerebral palsy, cannot walk or talk, and has complex care needs.<\/p>\n
It was claimed that a diagnosis of HELLP syndrome – which is a rare pregnancy complication that affects the blood and liver – should have been made and a caesarean section carried out.<\/p>\n
CJ settled a High Court action with a \u20ac3.5 million interim pay-out in November last year.<\/p>\n
Today, a High Court action over Patrick’s death was settled.<\/p>\n
Patrick’s counsel, Oonah McCrann SC, instructed by Cantillons Solicitors, told the court it was a tragic case that had a profound impact on the family.<\/p>\n
She said that Joanne had been isolated in a room on her own as it was during the Covid-19 pandemic and that she had had nobody to advocate for her.<\/p>\n
Mr Bohane addressed the court, saying he could not even begin to explain the devastating impact the situation had had.<\/p>\n
He said he was grateful it was sorted now and that they could move on with their lives.<\/p>\n
He said they were grateful for the apology they have received and that CJ brought love and joy into their lives.<\/p>\n
The judge said it was an unusually poignant and tragic case.<\/p>\n
An apology letter from Dr Mairead O’Riordan, Clinical Director at Cork University Maternity Hospital, was read out in court.<\/p>\n
She said that on behalf of the hospital she wished to extend her heartfelt sympathies to the boy’s parents.<\/p>\n
She said the hospital was deeply sorry for the circumstances surrounding the birth.<\/p>\n
Mr Bohane had sued the HSE on behalf of Patrick over the circumstances of his birth at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH).<\/p>\n
In a statement, Mr Bohane said the hospital had failed to recognise the red-flag symptoms of a catastrophic emergency condition known as HELLP syndrome, a severe form of preeclampsia.<\/p>\n
He said this had cost them the life of their son Patrick and was a life sentence for their son CJ.<\/p>\n
Mr Bohane said CJ is the only thing that keeps them going through the grief they have suffered.<\/p>\n
He said CJ is a beautiful five-year-old boy, who continues to smile despite the injuries he has suffered.<\/p>\n
He said they will never get to see their son Patrick smile, and that this is something they will never get over.<\/p>\n
He said the last five-and-a-half years have been very difficult for all of them and it is with regret they have had to fight for an apology.<\/p>\n
A separate claim by Patrick’s mother Joanne has yet to come before the courts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork University Maternity Hospital has apologised to the parents of a baby boy for the circumstances of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-573910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}