HSE Issues Apology Following Miscarriage Report

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has issued a formal apology following the publication of the National Miscarriage Misdiagnosis Review.
The inquiry into miscarriage misdiagnosis was launched in June 2010, after Melissa Redmond from Dublin announced that she had given birth to a son, even though she was told that she had miscarried the foetus.
The report, which focused on twenty four cases that were misdiagnosed in June of 2010, revealed that twenty two of the women went on to give birth after having been told that they had miscarried, while the remaining two only miscarried after undergoing medical procedures to remove the foetus.
Further issues were identified in the report, which concluded that there was inadequate training of staff and an over-reliance on the use of ultrasound. In twelve of the twenty four cases, there had been no mandatory ultrasound training supplied at the time of the misdiagnosis and in a further six cases, the ultrasound machine that was used was more than five years old.
The chairman of the review, Professor William Ledger, explained that the twenty four cases of misdiagnosis occurred at the very early stages of pregnancy, when a medical practitioner placing too much dependency on ultrasound may have missed a minute heartbeat.
He continued – “Over-reliance on ultrasound to diagnose a miscarriage in very early pregnancy has been repeatedly highlighted since the introduction of the technique in the 1970s and we have made recommendations that caution against the use of ultrasound alone to detect a pregnancy before eight weeks gestation.”
When Melissa’s story broke and the review was announced last year, more than 400 women called helplines to seek advice and the HSE has only now issued an apology to those women and their families for the shortcomings in their care, and the distress that this will have caused them.