An inquiry has been ordered, but the Livingstones do not need an official investigation to tell them what happened, writes Kitty Holland in Monaghan
Jimmy Livingstone says he wishes the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, could have been in his family's living room yesterday evening.
"I wish he could have been there to see us trying to coax that baby out of Denise's arms."
His daughter, Denise Livingstone, had held the body of her baby Bronagh in her arms all day and all the previous day, since the baby died in Cavan General Hospital early on Wednesday. Yesterday evening Bronagh was buried in a small cemetery just outside Emyvale, Co Monaghan.
Mr Martin has ordered a full investigation into the circumstances of Bronagh Livingstone's death; though Mr Livingstone is in no doubt about the circumstances.
Denise Livingstone woke with labour pains at about 4 o'clock on Wednesday morning at her family's home in Emyvale. Her partner, Barry Kerr, and her sister left immediately with her in Barry's van for the 6-mile journey to Monaghan General Hospital. They arrived at the hospital shortly before 5 a.m. She was in labour. She was frightened. "She was 6 months' pregnant, it was her first baby. Of course she was up in a heap," Mr Livingstone said.
"They went round to the back of the hospital to what was supposed to be an accident and emergency service, which was locked. So they drove around to the main door."
Denise was seen by a doctor and midwife at about 5.30 a.m. and a mild sedative was administered. An ambulance arrived at about 6 a.m. Denise was told "to cross her legs and not to push", during the 30-minute journey to Cavan. Neither the midwife nor the doctor travelled in the ambulance.
Denise was accompanied by her sister and an ambulance driver and a medical technician.
There was no incubator or neo-natal resuscitation equipment in the ambulance, despite Ms Livingstone being in an advanced state of labour.
About 17 miles into the journey, Denise Livingstone's daughter was born. The ambulance had to pull over before continuing on the 13-mile journey to Cavan.
"She [the baby] cried and was breathing all the way to Cavan," Mr Livingstone said. "There was a wee oxygen mask beside her but they didn't need it. They arrived at Cavan at about 7.30, they were seen to and transferred to the maternity ward. After a wee while they decided to ventilate the baby because she was getting tired.
"At about 8.30 they came in and said Bronagh had taken a turn for the worse and at about 10 to nine they said she had died."
Bronagh Mary Livingstone died a few hours old, weighing 1lb 10 ounces, "with a good wee head of black hair". She was baptised on Wednesday morning in Cavan General Hospital and buried in Corracrin Cemetery yesterday.
It was a private funeral, the family having asked that no media attend.
Mr Livingstone said yesterday that Bronagh's cousin, Daniel O'Neill, was born three years ago, also at 6 months' gestation, to Denise's sister Sharon. "He was born in Monaghan Hospital and is alive today. I am not a medical person; but I am convinced that if Bronagh had got the drugs she needed and the care to help her lungs, she would have survived. The baby that's able to breathe on her own at six months is a strong baby; but she got no chance at all.
"Michael Martin said before the election that he wouldn't intervene in the Monaghan Hospital situation unless it was a doomsday situation. This is a doomsday situation. It's time he got off his backside and did something."
He said his wife, Teresa, was "devastated", as was the rest of the family. Denise, he said, was "never going to get over this".
A spokeswoman for the Northeastern Health Board said it was offering support services to the family. Mr Livingstone said no one from the board had offered family support services.
Mr Peadar McMahon of the Monaghan Community Alliance said the people of Monaghan had "prophesied something like this would happen."
"The people of Monaghan are frightened and angry. We don't know when a tragedy will happen again and which family would be affected next. It seems the health board's attitude is that we will just have to sacrifice a few of our people while they set up their centres of so-called excellence elsewhere."