THE PARENTS OF a newborn baby who died after her heart was accidentally pierced by a doctor have accused medical staff of lying to them following their daughter’s death.
The family said they had to grapple with a “long and arduous legal battle to uncover the truth” of what exactly happened to two-day old Laoise Ní Scolaí.
Laoise and her twin brother Cuán were born prematurely in the Coombe hospital at 28 weeks on 22 January 2015.
As reported by RTÉ, the parents were told two days later that each baby had a collapsed lung and required a procedure to relieve it. This involves a drain being inserted into the baby’s chest.
At an inquest in 2017, it was recounted that the doctor who carried out the procedure was not aware of the protocols for carrying it out on a baby as small as Laoise, who weighed only 2lbs.
Today, the High Court heard the matter had been settled for “substantial sums”.
“We were lied to from the moment Laoise died and continued to be lied to for many years after her death,” said the family in a statement provided by their solicitor Stuart Gilhooly afterwards.
Cóilín Ó Scolaí, Laoise’s father, criticised the way the “extraordinary” way the family was treated in the subsequent years, saying they were “gaslighted” by the hospital.
“The medical profession was not only negligent but also continued to prevaricate and fabricate a line of defence for many years after our tragedy.”
Ó Scolaí continued: “While Laoise lived we were being told she was the stronger of the two but the moment she died the narrative changed and now were being told she was the weaker of the two, this gaslighting continued for the two years and even when Irene attended follow up check-ups with Cuán, they would always reiterate the new narrative which was very distressing to hear.
“We have watched Laoise’s twin brother, who when born was the weaker of the two, growing up to be a strong, athletic, healthy boy and we always wonder what she would have been like today, would she look like him, have his personality, his cheeky smile.
“It is also a constant reminder that she is not here. Laoise should be here enjoying a happy carefree midterm break this week, alongside him.
“He is growing up without his twin sister and we live with her loss every day, when they pierced her heart, they broke ours, our little girl who we wanted for so long and loved so dearly was dead.”
The legal process that we found ourselves in begun because we could not get to the truth of what actually happened to Laoise and it took tremendous fight on our part to get to that truth.
The family said it took months following the inquest for the HSE to admit liability, the lenght of time adding to pain and suffering, and criticised the “harsh and gruelling” legal process they had to journey through.
“Had the hospital held up their hands at the beginning, admitted their wrongdoing and ensured us that this would never happen again, we would have been saved of this pain and torment,” Ó Scolaí said.
“It would have allowed us to move forward to grieve our daughter a lot sooner. Instead, it has taken 8 years to get to this point and they have still not informed us what steps they have taken to ensure that this procedure is now safe.
“This has been a very long and painful journey that could have been avoided. Something needs to change.”
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