A senior midwife says she regrets telling Savita Halappanavar her pregnancy couldn’t be terminated because Ireland is a Catholic country.
Ann Maria Burke has been giving evidence at the inquest into the death of the 31 year old dentist from septicaemia following a miscarriage at Galway Univerity Hospital last October.
Midwife manager Ann Maria Burke said she is upset at the Catholic country remark but it was not meant to offend or be hurtful to Savita.
She said the 31 year old diagnosed as miscarrying was upset and asked her why unlike India the baby couldn’t be taken.
The inquest heard the Hindu faith was mentioned and she was trying to be sensitive and throw a light on Irish culture.
Coroner Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin put it to the midwife that her comment had gone all around the world -‘public hospitals do not follow religious tenets or dogma of any persuasion’ he said.
The midwife replied it was was a chat – ‘it wasn’t anything to do with providing care..I was trying to be as kind as I could…I’m sorry I said it’.
The inquest continues.
