A COUPLE WHO recently settled High Court actions in a wrongful termination case will meet with the Health Minister later this month.
Last month, Rebecca Price and Patrick Kiely settled their High Court actions. They decided to terminate a healthy pregnancy in 2019 after being wrongly advised of a fatal foetal abnormality.
The couple’s solicitor Caoimhe Haughey said it’s hoped the meeting on 26 July will pave the way for next steps to “put in place the very important learnings from this tragedy”.
These “learnings” were set out in a commissioned report by Dr Peter McKenna, clinical director of the HSE’s National Women and Infants Health Programme.
Haughey previously said: “This report was shared with the couple and it sets out necessary recommendations to ensure optimum standards for maternal and infant health care which the Minister for Health undertook to act upon.
Acting upon these recommendations in the interests of maternal and infant health care is urgent and exigent.
The couple had named their unborn son Christopher.
“We hope this is the start for impetus in the direction of making Christopher’s voice a legacy that will help and guide future mums and dads and parents going forward,” Haughey told The Journal.
Rebecca and Pat are grateful for all the support and sympathy and empathy they received, but it’s time for action.
In 2019, Price was 12 weeks pregnant when a blood test came back positive for serious genetic disorder trisomy 18 or Edward’s Syndrome, classified as a fatal foetal abnormality. Further tests also came back positive for the disorder.
The couple was told not to wait for the results of a full chromosomal analysis, and followed the advice of their consultant to terminate the pregnancy in March 2019 as the pregnancy was not viable.
They later discovered that full cell culture analysis showed their son did not have any chromosomal abnormality.
The couple had requested a meeting with Stephen Donnelly with the goal to “ensure this never, ever happens again”, Haughey said last month.
A spokesperson for the minister declined to comment ahead of the meeting.
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