Newborn died after mother was left alone for 90 minutes while in labour
A BABY boy died after his mother was left alone in labour for 90 minutes by nursing staff, an inquest has heard.
The inquest into the April 2015 death of baby Stevie Cullivan – named after his father Stephen who died the previous December – heard harrowing evidence from the infant’s mother Sandra yesterday.
Ms Cullivan was 36 when she went to Mullingar Regional Hospital to be induced on April 28, 2015. Her baby, Stevie, was born at 11.59pm. He died two days later on April 30.
Ms Cullivan said she was left in a room alone with the door closed for an hour-and-a-half, and when contractions started she became concerned but could not reach the call bell. ‘I was very afraid for our baby, I shouted out for help and I was eventually heard and a nurse came in,’ Ms Cullivan said.
There was ‘urgency’ in the midwife’s voice when she examined her, Ms Cullivan said. The baby’s head was low in the birth canal and birth was imminent, the court heard.
‘Stevie was my last chance to have a baby with Stephen. I am completely and utterly devastated,’ Sandra Cullivan said. Her husband died following a heart attack.
Dublin Coroner’s Court heard how the infant was being treated as a ‘precious baby’ because of the earlier loss of the baby’s father. Ms Cullivan had been allocated a private room in the post-natal ward.
On the night in question, it was heard, the midwife assigned to her care was busy dealing with three other patients who’d undergone caesarean sections that day and had entrusted Ms Cullivan’s care to her colleagues. ‘I was hoping to get in to see her as soon as possible but other things happened and I was deviated,’ the midwife said.
Baby Stevie was born at 11.59pm that night. ‘It was obvious Stevie wasn’t going to be OK,’ Ms Cullivan said. ‘I feel devastated I was left for so long and nobody came near me... I put my faith in this hospital.’
The hearing continues.