Ireland’s minister for Health has expressed his disappointment at delays in finalising the report into the death of Savita Halappanavar. The Indian woman was 17 weeks pregnant when she presented herself at a Galway hospital complaining of back pain. She died one week later of a massive infection.
Dr James Reilly said he had expected the report to be completed at this point, but various legal issues have held it up, reports the Irish Independent.
“I have to say I would have expected it by now, but there have been issues about it, legal issues,” Dr Reilly revealed at the National Healthcare Conference in Dublin.
Dr Reilly said Savita’s husband, Praveen, will get the first copy of the finalized report and he will be permitted to comment on the report into his wife’s death, before it is published.
The 31-year-old dentist died at in University College Hospital in Galway in October last year after she was diagnosed with sepsis which increased to septic shock.
A preliminary report into her death concluded that medical staff at the hospital underestimated the seriousness of her condition for too long.
Savita and her husband asked for the pregnancy to be terminated after she was informed she would miscarry, but she was refused as the baby still had a heartbeat.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) established an inquiry into her death on November 20.
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