Savita Halappanavar’s husband Praveen has revealed he receives hate mail and is constantly told to leave Ireland after his wife’s tragic death hit the headlines.
Praveen has told Irish broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan how pro-life campaign groups have targeted him in the abortion debate that has followed his wife’s death.
As he prepares to take legal action against the hospital authorities who refused his wife’s request for an abortion, Praveen has spoken of his continuing ordeal.
He said: “I have been receiving abusive letters from different campaigners.
“There is one particular campaigner who writes again and again has told me to leave the country, and to fix the mess in my own country before I try and fix any mess here – it’s quite hurtful.”
The Irish Independent reports that Praveen has branded the official report into the death of his wife last October as a ‘whitewash’.
He added: “Someone has to answer why she died, and I haven’t got an answer yet. The HSE report was very anonymous and was a complete whitewash, it was more of an audit.
“We did push a public inquiry, which never happened, and we see this as the only option left to us. There are some midwives who never attended the inquest and that bothers me
“What happened? Why did they not treat her the way she should have been? I felt something was going wrong, but I never thought I could lose her. I just want to seek the truth.”
Savita Halappanavar was just 31 when she died at Galway University Hospital last October. She had presented a week earlier with severe back pain and was 17 weeks pregnant.
She was refused a termination after she was found to be miscarrying and was told ‘it is a Catholic thing’.
Her husband is to issue medical negligence proceedings in the High Court against the hospital.
Praveen also spoke of how he never had trust in the official investigation into his wife’s death and was only informed it was to be published the night before it was made public.
He added: “I was on my way home the day before, and I never knew it was published, I just received an email the night before.
“The HSE investigation panel was set up but I never had trust in the HSE, there is no truth coming out of the HSE report.
“I do respect the chairperson but also understand the report was recommendations rather than getting to the bottom of the truth. It added nothing new to the outcome of the inquest.”
A heartbroken Praveen said he is still grieving the loss of his wife.
He said: “The last few months have been very tough, I’m still coping with the loss.
“I’ve just started to realise Savita is not with me, and I can still feel all the memories. Every single bit of my life is full of memories.
“We both had very good faith in religion and the almighty, but I’m not able to understand why it happened. Every day I pray and ask why this happened to us, but I’ve never lost trust and hope.”
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