Five years on from Savita’s death, her friends’ anger and grief still very raw
SAVITA Halappanavar’s name is never far from the thoughts of the community in Galway and today they mark the fifth anniversary of her death.
Savita’s name was even raised recently during Oireachtas Committee meetings as the debate rages over the Eighth Amendment.
But her friends said they become angry every time they think of the pain and indignity she suffered through her death.
Savita (31) and her husband Praveen, from Galway, were expecting their first child. “They were excited” about having a baby and had been “trying for a while”, according to close friend Dr CVR Prasad.
Dr Prasad and his wife Devi were very close with Savita and had known her for over five years. Savita had even picked the name for the baby – ‘Prasa’ – “It’s the first three letters of ‘Praveen’ and the first two of ‘Savita’,” Dr Prasad explained.
Anaya Gupta and her husband Sanjeev Gupta were friends with Savita and Praveen. Anaya said that friends in the Indian community were helping the young dentist prepare to celebrate the birth. “I had seen her the day before she went in to hospital as we had an early baby shower for her. Her parents were visiting from India during that time and they wanted to mark the good news,” says Dr Gupta.
Savita, a classical dancer “used to teach all the children in the community,” Sanjeev told the Irish Independent. That year she wasn’t dancing because she was pregnant and “was reducing the teaching”, he said. Then at 17 weeks, on October 21, 2012, Savita was troubled with back pain and went to hospital. She was told the devastating news that she was miscarrying.
Praveen, an engineer at Boston Scientific at the time, said that Savita asked several times over a three-day period that the pregnancy be terminated. However, the evidence is that doctors who were treating Savita failed to detect that she had sepsis in time and did not administer the correct antibiotics.
Dr Prasad told the Irish Independent that he visited Savita in hospital when she was moved to the intensive care unit around four days after she first presented with back pain. “Her husband rang me when she was transferred to the ICU, her parents were also there,” he said. “The minute I saw her, I knew she wasn’t going to make it. I’ve seen patients like that with sepsis and multi-organ failure.”
Dr Prasad said he could tell by her “blood pressure and pulse; she was on very heavy drugs to keep her heart stimulated. It was shocking; she was all swollen and was on a ventilator,” he said.
“They were waiting for the foetus to die before they terminated. That was stupid. Sepsis develops very fast and you have to make decisions quickly”, but because of the law in Ireland, “doctors must operate with one hand tied behind their back.”
“Every time they treat a pregnant woman, they think of the law on one side and the
woman on the other,” he said.
“Myself and other friends of Savita get angry when we think of it. The woman was begging for her life, she begged a few times but was told ‘the foetal heart is there and we cannot terminate your pregnancy’.”
Savita was “imprisoned by the Irish health system and the law that it is governed by,” said Dr Prasad.
Soon after her death, the Government issued legislation under the Life During Pregnancy Act which gave statutory law to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. It defines the circumstances in which abortion can be permitted.
However many clinicians, including former master of Holles Street Maternity Hospital Peter Boylan, say the Eighth Amendment provision, which under the Constitution equals the life of the unborn to the life of the expectant mother, has caused “grave harm to women, including death”. He was speaking at a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment.
The Citizens’ Assembly voted overwhelmingly earlier this year not to retain the amendment in its current form. A referendum on removing, either part or in full, the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution is expected by 2018. It remains an emotive issue that raises valid points on both sides.
Meanwhile, Savita’s friends and family will mark the anniversary of her death as she lived her life – with music and dance.
This Monday, the extended Indian community, Hindus, Christians and people of no religion, will gather to celebrate the Diwali Festival of light in her honour.
“We’ll play videos of her dancing and remember how she contributed to the community,” says Dr Anaya Gupta. “People still really miss her,” says Sanjeev.