‘Why did the hospital prolong our suffering?’
Parents get apology for Evan’s death... five years after botched birth
‘We put our trust in these people’ paul.caffrey@dailymail.ie
THE parents of a baby boy, who lived for less than a day after his botched delivery, have asked why a hospital would ‘choose to deliberately prolong our suffering’ by waiting more than five years to accept responsibility for his death.
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co. Louth yesterday apologised to the family in the High Court for the ‘deficit in care’ shown to Evan Tuite, whose skull was fractured during his ‘forced’ delivery in June 2012.
The baby died in his mother’s arms less than 13 hours after he was born.
Little Evan’s father Ivan Murphy yesterday said that the hospital and HSE claimed that his son had suffered from brittle bone disease, and that this was the reason for his injuries.
He told RTÉ news: ‘Hurtful allegations were made by the hospital and the HSE that our son had brittle bone disease.
‘It was later proven that Evan did not have that disease.’
Outside the Four Courts, after settling their medical negligence lawsuit against the HSE over Evan’s care, his visibly distraught parents Mr Murphy and Fiona Tuite said: ‘It took five and a half years to admit liability. Why did a hospital choose to deliberately prolong our suffering? I would like to see the persons responsible for that decision to be held accountable. We are meant to put our confidence and trust in these people, but they let us down in the worst possible [way] with the loss of our son. This should not have happened and could have been avoided.’
Fighting back tears, Mr Murphy, who read out the family statement, said that if he could turn back the clock, he’d never have let doctors deliver his child by force.
He said in the statement: ‘Our son Evan was born on June 14, 2012 at 6.20am. He passed away in his mother’s arms at 7.15pm.
‘Every day I wish and pray we could have that day back again and I would have said, “stop”.
‘I would never have let [doctors] go ahead and deliver Evan by force. If only [doctors] had sent Fiona for a [Caesarean] section, our baby would have been here today. He would now be going to school, playing with his friends and have the same life and love as any other child.’
He added: ‘I am publicly appealing for a date to be confirmed for an inquest into our son’s death.’
Earlier, in court, the family’s barrister Liam Reidy, SC, said the delivery was ‘quite horrific’.
Liability was denied until last year, when it was finally admitted by the HSE, Mr Reidy told the court. The hospital expressed its ‘sincere and heartfelt sympathy’ to the family in court yesterday.
Parents Ms Tuite and Mr Murphy, of Rose Hall, Drogheda, Co. Louth, had sued the HSE over the care provided to baby Evan.
They first lodged their lawsuit in June 2013 and it was due to be heard in full yesterday. Instead, it settled for €25,000, the standard amount paid out in death cases.
Approving the payout, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said the family had suffered what was undoubtedly ‘an awful event on what should have been a joyous day.’
On June 13, 2012, Ms Tuite was admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. Early the next morning, a decision was taken to proceed to an ‘assisted delivery’ using forceps which were applied to the baby’s head, the court heard.
Evan was delivered in poor condition at 6.29am and transferred to the special care baby unit. A CT scan later showed evidence of a haemorrhage. In the family’s High Court action, it was claimed there was a failure to inform a consultant obstetrician of the decision to carry out the forced delivery. It was also claimed that there was a failure to proceed to a Caesarean section.