A pregnant woman who was taken into the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin for monitoring woke a fellow patient early in the morning and told her she was in labour and to get help, the High Court has been told.
Blaise Gallagher, aged six, who has cerebral palsy and is brain-damaged, was born at the Holles Street hospital on April 27th, 1992, two days after his mother was admitted for monitoring.
Through his mother, Mrs Avril Gallagher, the child has brought an action claiming negligence against the hospital and an obstetrician, Dr Joseph Stanley.
Mrs Gallagher, of Moneystown, Roundwood, Co Wicklow, gave birth to the baby in the 29th week of her pregnancy.
In court yesterday Mr Justice Quirke was told by Mrs Mary Lynch, another patient who was in the same four-bed ward as Mrs Gallagher, that Mrs Gallagher had said on April 26th she was getting "little twinges". As Mrs Gallagher got into bed, she had pains in her stomach again.
Mrs Lynch said that, while asleep in the early hours of April 27th, 1992, she was woken by Mrs Gallagher, who was crying and very upset.
Mrs Gallagher said to her: "Mary, Mary, I'm in labour. Help me." Mrs Lynch said she got a fright, jumped up and told Mrs Gallagher to go and ring her husband. Mrs Gallagher did so.
Mrs Lynch said she then heard Mrs Gallagher returning to the ward and the sound of feet and whispered voices and curtains closing.
Then there was the sound of a wheelchair coming, and Mrs Gallagher was taken away in that chair. It was beginning to get bright at the time.
Mrs Lynch said no one from the hospital had discussed with her what had happened.
Cross-examined by Mr Sean Ryan SC, for the hospital, Mrs Lynch said she felt Mrs Gallagher was in great pain, because she was so upset.
She agreed with counsel that there was a bell on her pillow in case of emergency. Mrs Lynch said that when she woke up she may not have been thinking straight, and her reaction was to ask Mrs Gallagher to ring her husband.
At the time Mrs Gallagher was in distress and extremely upset, Mrs Lynch said. In her view, Mrs Gallagher was well into labour and had been crying.
Dr Michael John Hare, a British consultant obstetrician, told Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for Blaise Gallagher, that the standard of medical notetaking before Mrs Gallagher entered hospital left a lot to be desired.
There was, for instance, no record of a visit by Mrs Gallagher to the hospital for foetal monitoring. There was no record of Mrs Gallagher's heart and intra-uterine activity being checked when she first entered the hospital on the weekend of the birth, he added.
Dr Hare said there was a 97 per cent prospect the baby would be in the normal delivery position if the pregnancy went full term, but there was a 25 per cent to perhaps 33 per cent chance this would not be the case if it was pre-term.
In this instance, the baby might present bottom first or in a transverse position.
He felt the method of confirming the rupture of Mrs Gallagher's membranes was inadequate. From examination of the records, he noticed a "big gap" in contemporaneous notes before the transfer of Mrs Gallagher to the delivery ward.
It was likely that her labour was well established when she went to phone her husband.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.