A heartbroken couple, who lost their baby daughter in 1992 following a botched delivery less than three months earlier, have received an apology from a Dublin maternity hospital more than two decades on.
The Coombe hospital have admitted that had they given Catherina Mc Garry a Caesarean section at an earlier point in her delivery, her daughter, Jennifer Anna, would have "most likely" avoided the injury she sustained to her spinal cord as a result of being delivered by forceps vaginally.
According to reports, Mrs. McGarry, who was 26 at the time of her daughter's birth in November 1991, endured a longer labour then expected before allegedly being told she would undergo a Caesarean section the following day.
Instead, however, the registrar, who has since moved to the UK, decided to deliver the child using a forceps in a move which he described as a routine delivery.
Recalling the event which reportedly led to her daughter's demise, Catherina said she "felt like her whole insides were being pulled out" while a HSE report asserted that: "The baby appeared to be asphyxiated with forceps marks on her face and skull."
Having been brought to a specialist-care baby unit, Jennifer died on Valentine's Day - two and a half months after her arrival.
The couple were dealt a further blow in 2012 when they learned their baby daughter has been buried without her brain or spine, with Catherina asserting: "We buried a shell. We never even got to bury our baby girl’s full body and nobody bothered to tell us."
Reporting on the infant's death, former master of the Coombe, Dr. Christ Fitzpatrick, asserted that the time which passed between Jennifer's death and the hospital's response was unacceptable "for whatever reason".
Further to this, Dr. Fitzpatrick asserted that the Stephen and Catherina McGarry should have had to give their consent regarding the retention of their child's organs.
It is understood that those reviewing the McGarry's case attempted to make contact with the 35 staff members involved in Jennifer's case, but were unsuccessful.
Commenting on the impact Jennifer's delivery and death has had, Stephen said: "The damage that was done to Catherina destroyed her. We have had no lives since this happened to her."
The couple have since suffered seven miscarriages and were informed they were too old to adopt.
