Parents recount seeing dead babies squeezed into metal box

The first sight some parents had of their dead babies at Portlaoise hospital was when their child was squeezed into a metal box on a wheelchair, covered with a sheet and pushed by mortuary staff.

“One mother described how the box was not of sufficient size and their baby was squeezed into it,” according to an account in the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) report on Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise.

“She said she did not remove or hold her baby for fear of being unable to return him to the box.”

Other parents described how they were ushered into a room where their baby’s body was lying on a table.

Some described having to wander around the hospital on their own looking for the mortuary to go and see their dead baby, because no one was allocated to show them the way.

Others described being “terrified” during their care and afraid to raise their concerns about the welfare of their child.

The sum of these and other experiences, recounted by parents whose babies died at Portlaoise, showed how, “on a human level” the lack of simple acts of kindness “for example listening, caring and giving compassion, during a hugely traumatic experience in a person’s life can make a harrowing event even worse for a parent”, says the report.

The Hiqa team met 15 patients and/or members of their families as a first step in their investigation. Eight of these were mothers whose babies had died.

“The investigation team witnessed the emotional and physical effect that revisiting their experiences had on these women and men . . . the overriding assertion of those interviewed was that their motivation in coming forward stemmed from a wish to help prevent similar occurrences in the future.”

Most recounted difficulties in getting information from the hospital. They believed their questions were being ignored or sidestepped and requests for meetings or information were avoided or refused.

Medical jargon was used during sensitive conversations, leaving parents feeling “intimidated and unclear as to what was being said to them”.

“Most parents who met with the authority . . . explicitly expressed the opinion that some staff who were involved in their care were uncaring and did not listen to what they were saying. This was a common theme . . . with parents saying they felt they were being talked about, were being ignored and that they felt invisible.”

As a result some women felt afraid to raise concerns about the welfare of their babies. One woman described being made to feel like a “naughty child or that she was a troublemaker when she questioned her care and treatment”.

A set of parents said they were made to feel like they were not entitled to an explanation of what had happened when their baby had died.

Though some said they had met members of staff who were kind, “they felt this compassionate approach was not the norm during their care”.

Following the deaths of their babies, the parents felt they were not offered good care “in the midst of their grief”.

One woman said she felt staff avoided going into her room, while another said she was “reprimanded for crying as it would upset other mothers who had delivered healthy babies”.

Another reflected how “any small simple act of humanity would have provided much needed comfort”.

On leaving hospital, some of these patients believed their cases had been isolated events and it was not until RTÉ's Prime Time Investigates programme, aired on January 30th, 2014, that they realised other parents had had similar experiences.

Their interactions with the hospital, attempts to get information and clarity, were “unsatisfactory”. They encountered “defensiveness and felt there had been a cover-up”.

Many of the parents said their experiences had overwhelmed their lives and continued to “have an ongoing effect on them”.