A pregnant woman almost died and remains seriously brain-damaged after bleeding heavily because she was wrongly given a drug to advance her labour at Portiuncula Hospital in Co Galway, the High Court heard yesterday.
Mrs Derron Troute (37), a mother of four, told the court she now regarded her husband, Aidan, as "a father figure" and herself as a child. She related better to her children emotionally.
Her counsel, Mr Liam McKechnie SC, said Mrs Troute had no recall of her labour and did not know that her youngest son, Daniel, was her child when she returned to her home after six months' hospitalisation and rehabilitation.
She was, in her own words, "not altogether with it" and would never be able to live independently, counsel said. She was psychologically and emotionally changed and her personality was totally different.
He said Mrs Troute had a subtotal hysterectomy and developed problems with blood clotting and kidney failure after she gave birth to Daniel at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, on October 13th, 1995. She was transferred to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, where she was in intensive care until the end of that month. She was unable to return to her home until April 1996, six months after she gave birth.
The "first-class treatment" given to her at Beaumont unquestionably saved her life, counsel said.
Mrs Troute, a former bank employee from London who lives at Coosan, Athlone, Co Westmeath, is suing a nominee of Portiuncula Hospital and Dr Michael Brassil, an obstetrician who worked at the hospital in October 1995, for damages for personal injury due to negligence.
When the case opened before Mr Justice O'Neill yesterday, Mr McKechnie (with Mr Felix McEnroy SC and Mr Alistair Rutherdale) said liability was not an issue. The case was proceeding as an assessment of damages only. Mr McKechnie said it merited substantial damages.
He said that Mrs Troute was almost 34 years old when admitted to Portiuncula. The drug Synctocinon was administered to her to augment her labour.
Counsel said it was "wrong and sub-standard practice" to administer Synctocinon in the circumstances and it was wrong to continue a Synctocinon drip when there was maternal or foetal distress.
The case continues today.
