GATLAND OPENS UP ON BABY DEATH TRAGEDY:
WARREN GATLAND has revealed his first daughter died at the age of just four months.
The former Wales coach and his wife Trudi’s daughter, Shauna, passed away after being born with spina bifida in Ireland 27 years ago.
Gatland wrote of his heartbreak in a moving passage of his candid autobiography, Pride and Passion, which is out tomorrow.
“When Shauna was born, in the early hours of 17 January 1992, our world changed,” he said.
“Whatever problems she had didn’t register with me at the moment of birth. But there were tears in the eyes of the nursing staff.
“The nurses knew deep down her condition was serious and an immediate scan confirmed the worst. We were devastated.”
Gatland said it put sport and life into perspective, and described the “awful dilemma” Trudi and he then had to face.
Doctors gave the couple the options of long and gruelling surgical interventions with minimal chance of long-term success or “letting nature take its course”.
Gatland, who was playing for the Galwegians club at the time, asked the Galway Hospital’s professor of paediatrics how serious her condition was on a scale of one to 10, with the expert describing it as “nine”.
“That was the hardest, most gutwrenching conversation of my life,” wrote Gatland.
Shauna would have faced multiple major operations, the constant risk of infection and would have had to have used a wheelchair.
“Even if the medical side went to plan, even if she fought like a lion to survive, what kind of life would be on offer to her?” said Gatland.
After consulting senior hospital staff, Gatland and Trudi decided to take the “kinder” route and not put her through years of unrelenting operations.
Shauna died on May 13 that year. The couple moved back to New Zealand after the birth, but Gatland, to his “profound and lasting regret”, was in Australia with the Waikato provincial team when Shauna passed away.
Gatland has two other children he is immensely proud of, daughter
Gabby and rugby-playing son Bryn, and his motto while in charge of Wales that “family comes first” is clear in his book, which is published in hardback by Headline.
He also revealed his father Dave Gatland, who died in October last year, was buried dressed in a Wales polo shirt.
Warren Gatland said he believes his decision to become Wales coach and stay on following the 2015 World Cup has strengthened his relationship with wife Trudi, who he credited with persuading him to write his autobiography.