A High Court case has been brought forward by a couple, accusing the Health Service Executive (HSE) of causing severe emotional distress. They state that they were informed three months post the burial of their stillborn child that his brain had been kept. They claim that the news was so shocking to the mother that she was taken ill in 2018.
The couple argue they underwent substantial additional trauma on top of the suffering caused due to their child’s death at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH). They are launching a lawsuit for supposed psychological injury.
A lawsuit is already underway claiming that a birth defect was not detected during the prenatal phase whilst under the care received at CUMH. They assert they should have been given advice and made emotionally ready for the forthcoming events. They claim there was a failure in the identification of a severe prenatal abnormality. However, all of these assertions are negated.
Documents updated in the previous week claim that they were failed by not obtaining consent to keep their son’s brain and by not ensuring adequate communication about the autopsy exam and organ retention policy was given. They claim they were not told about the necessity of organ retention prior to retention, nor were they informed later that their child’s brain was held and not returned for burial post the autopsy.
Their lead attorney, John O’Mahony, alongside Doireann O’Mahony BL, stated that the news of their baby’s brain retention was shocking and unexpected. O’Mahony opposed the application of HSE for rescheduling the couple’s legal action which was due to commence on Wednesday. He described the HSE’s motion for a delay as “ungracious, inhumane and unjustified”.
HSE’s chief attorney, Luán Ó Braonáin, argued that the claims concerning the brain retention drastically alters the lawsuit and require additional time to investigate.
The legal team stated that if the pair win on the matter of retention, this would have farther-reaching consequences and establish fresh legal precedent, as the final ruling by the Supreme Court on organ retention was in 2007. This Supreme Court decision at the time established that a Dublin-based duo were not justified in receiving compensation from a medical facility for emotional distress relating to the retention of their stillborn daughter’s organs in 1988.
In her presentation to the High Court on Tuesday, the representing solicitor, Ms O’Mahony, declared that her clients’ stance was that nothing novel was being argued in the litigation and they didn’t perceive the brain retention allegations were an extra component of the lawsuit.
Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds expressed that the Health Service Executive held the right to be informed of the charge against them, and sadly, the retention allegations were only revealed the previous week. To exercise fair treatment towards the parties involved, the court proceedings have been temporarily halted.