No justification for my symphysiotomy, mother tells High Court

A woman who claims there was no justification for a symphysiotomy performed on her 12 days before the birth of her baby at a Dublin hospital in the 1960s has sued for damages.

The 74-year-old woman told Mr Justice Kevin Cross she could not bond with her baby daughter afterwards and was unable to lift her out of her cot.

She felt very disillusioned, later had a nervous breakdown and “took to her bed” for a time.

Opening the case in the High Court yesterday, John Rogers SC, for the woman, said she had a non-emergency symphysiotomy which has left her with life-long pain, incontinence and restricted mobility.

It was a remarkable feature of this case that the symphysiotomy was carried out before the birth, and this indicated it was “a totally unnecessary procedure, without justification”.

Action opposed

In opposing the action, the hospital contends the proceedings are statute-barred and also pleads the woman signed a consent form to any operation or anaesthetic that may be necessary during her time in the hospital.

The court heard the woman’s baby was born on October 7th, 1963.

In evidence, the woman said a doctor told her some days before the birth they were going to help her to have her baby and she was given an injection. She woke up in bed and thought at first she had had her baby.

When she tried to go to the toilet, she said it felt like her body was split in half.

“I started to scream and I had to be helped back to bed, and a doctor came in his pyjamas,” she said. She had the mistaken belief the birth had already occurred. She was on a lot of painkillers and did not recall having her baby 12 days later.

When she got home, her aunt and mother had to help her with her daughter as she could not even lift her out of the cot. “I was not able to lift her or feed her properly. I was not able to get myself out of bed.

“It went on for about three months,” she said. “I did not know what they had done. It was never explained to me.

“I thought I had been stretched or something, I did not know I had been cut,” she added.

She and her husband had planned to have about four children, but the operation changed her life, she said. She had had a second child.

The case continues.