A coroner in Dublin has described the death of a baby girl ten days after her birth at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) as the most “clinically complex” case she had ever seen in her career. Faye Neiland died at Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin on 11 October 2019, after being transferred for special treatment following her birth. A post-mortem revealed she had died as a result of multiple organ failure consistent with brain injuries caused by lack of oxygen and blood. Faye’s parents claimed that their daughter’s death could have been prevented if the hospital had stricter protocols and policies on how to respond to abnormal heartbeats detected in a baby before delivery. They alleged that there were failures by CUMH staff to recognise and react to abnormal readings from a CTG monitor which measures foetal heartbeat and maternal contractions. An inquest at Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard that Faye’s mother had an uneventful pregnancy with her first child before being induced at CUMH on 29 September 2019 when she was ten days over her due date. She was given increasing amounts of oxytocin throughout 30 September 2019 before Faye’s delivery. Faye’s father, Kevin Neiland, said his wife should not have been given the drug and the induction process should have been abandoned given the abnormal CTG tracings. Although one registrar had directed that oxytocin should be discontinued because it could distress the baby, the decision was reversed a short time later by a consultant obstetrician. A senior consultant obstetrician at CUMH, Prof Richard Greene, acknowledged that there had been a “missed opportunity” to deliver the baby by Caesarean section instead of putting Ms Neiland back on oxytocin.
The coroner returned a narrative verdict to reflect the complexity of the case, although counsel for Faye’s parents had called for a verdict of medical misadventure. The coroner noted that no specific source of infection had been determined and no genetic condition that could explain the death had been found. The coroner remarked that the case was “particularly sad” and the most clinically complex death she had ever come across. The Neiland family’s lawyer, Aisling Maher of Cantillons Solicitors, acknowledged CUMH’s commitments to make improvements, particularly in relation to reviewing guidelines on the induction of labour. “We would hope that this would better educate those working in maternity units on the appropriateness of continuing the induction of labour process and how to deal with complications arising from the process on a timely basis to avoid similar unnecessary deaths into the future,” said Ms Maher.
