Paul Keenan“They were too quick to hand out the abortion pills,” mother said.
An unborn baby survived a chemical abortion at a Dublin hospital following a misread scan, it has emerged.
Megan Hul of Newbridge, Co. Kildare was delivered in February of this year at the city’s Rotunda hospital where her mother, Michelle, was being treated for an earlier miscarriage. That miscarriage, in July of 2013, involved Megan’s twin and, according to Michelle, led doctors to use abortifacient pills to clear the woman’s womb towards avoiding infection.
Subsequent examinations, including scans, resulted in a recommendation that Michelle undergo surgery to clear her of dangerous clots while failing to spot the still healthy baby. It was during one of the pre-surgery scans, Michelle states, that a doctor spotted signs of a foetal heartbeat and realised the earlier errors.
Nightmare
“I went through a nightmare,” Michelle said of the months leading up to Megan’s birth. “My husband and I had spent eight months worried for our baby because I had been treated with abortion pills. They told me it wouldn’t cause birth defects but I was still worried.”
Michelle insists that it was the hospital’s use of unqualified staff that led to the series of events and called on the Rotunda to enact better safeguards for emergency maternity situations.
“They were too quick to hand out the abortion pills,” she said.