Woman had ‘near-death experience’ after Caesarean

A woman had a "near-death experience" when she began to haemorrhage internally after her baby was delivered by Caesarean section, the High Court was told yesterday.

Honey Larkin said she almost died and had lost more than half of her blood volume by the time she was brought to an operating theatre at Letterkenny General Hospital for surgery in January 2008.

Ms Larkin (40), Churchill, Letterkenny, has sued the HSE and a consultant gynae- cologist at Letterkenny General Hospital, Eddie Aboud, over alleged negligence and breach of duty.

She claims she is suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of her experience and has not recovered from the possibility that she might have died.

Ms Larkin claims the defendants failed to check, or check sufficiently, or recognise she was bleeding profusely and losing substantial amounts of blood. There was a failure to attach due significance to or take appropriate action in response to her distress signals, she claims.

By the time she underwent a second operation to stop the bleeding, she was in a parlous state and had suffered massive blood loss and a near-death experience, it is claimed.

The defendants say Ms Larkin was treated in a timely and appropriate man- ner when surgical complications were identified.

The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues.