Newborn twin died after doctor punctured her heart

A TWO-DAY-OLD baby died after a doctor punctured her heart with plastic tubing, an inquest has heard.

Laoise Ní Scolaí, a twin born premature at 28 weeks, died on January 24, 2015, after a doctor at the Coombe Hospital, Dublin, attempted to insert a chest drain.

Dublin Coroner’s Court heard that the infant’s parents were left devastated by the loss of one of their twins following neonatal registrar Dr Muhammed Islam’s attempt at carrying out the life-saving procedure.

‘We are left broken as a family,’ the infant’s father, Cóilín Ó Scolaí, told the inquest.

The baby’s mother Irene Kavanagh said watching Laoise’s twin Cuán grow up left the family wondering about his sister.

‘She was a twin so we have her brother that we watch everyday. We look at him and we wonder, “What would she look like?” Every milestone he’s taken, we can just never get away from it,’ she said.

Baby Laoise and her twin Cuán, from Drimnagh, Dublin 12, were born at the Coombe by caesarean section on January 22, 2015. Laoise weighed 1.25kg at birth.

Both newborns developed respiratory distress. A decision was made to insert a chest drain to relieve pressure on Laoise’s heart and lungs. Dr Islam told the inquest he inserted the needle two to three centimetres into the baby’s chest in line with the guidelines he was aware of.

There were ‘a few spots of blood’ initially which he said he thought was a burst blood vessel. A nurse alerted him to the presence of blood in the tubing as the monitors attached to the baby began to alarm.

Senior counsel for the family, Richard Keane, pointed out to Dr Islam that the correct depth to insert a needle in a baby of Laoise’s size was 1.5cm.

There were no written protocols in relation to the method of drain insertion used at the hospital at that time, it was heard.

New guidelines have since been introduced at the Coombe.

Baby Laoise deteriorated quickly and died two days later in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Dublin.

The cause of death was a perforated injury of the left ventricle of the heart, following insertion of a chest drain in a premature baby, according to pathologist Dr James John O’Leary.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane returned a verdict of medical misadventure.