Category Archives: Activism and Agitation
If I can’t have My Reproductive Rights, then it’s not My Revolution.
Women on web
To them, we are nothing but vessels
Dhara Kivlehan
Dhara Kivlehan married Michael Kivlehan and was starting a family she attended the maternity unit in Sligo and after her mistreatment was airlifted to Belfast hospital were she died.
They meet in Londonin 2002, fell in love, moved back to Ireland and were married in 2005. Dhara died in 2010 it has taken 4 years for the inquest and investigation to happen.
Mrs Kivlehan was two weeks over her due date when she arrived at Sligo General Hospital on September 20 in labour.
However the results of blood tests taken that afternoon – which showed “grossly abnormal liver function and grossly abnormal kidney function” – were not followed up by her doctors or reported back by the lab for another 12 hours.
Her baby son, Dior, was delivered by C section shortly before 6am the following morning.
The hearing was told two doctors in Sligo agreed that the emergency procedure should be carried to deliver the baby and then Mrs Kivlehan should be treated in intensive care.
The civil action last year heard she was instead transferred to a side room off the maternity ward for a day and a half with no specialist care before being moved to ICU
–
Mrs Kivlehan was two weeks over her due date when she arrived at Sligo General Hospital on September 20 in labour.
However the results of blood tests taken that afternoon – which showed “grossly abnormal liver function and grossly abnormal kidney function” – were not followed up by her doctors or reported back by the lab for another 12 hours.
Her baby son, Dior, was delivered by C section shortly before 6am the following morning.
The hearing was told two doctors in Sligo agreed that the emergency procedure should be carried to deliver the baby and then Mrs Kivlehan should be treated in intensive care.
The civil action last year heard she was instead transferred to a side room off the maternity ward for a day and a half with no specialist care before being moved to ICU
– See more at: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/i-will-not-stand-for-this-its-a-coverup-shame-on-you-30436928.html#sthash.NpWRoLtv.dpuf
Mrs Kivlehan was two weeks over her due date when she arrived at Sligo General Hospital on September 20 in labour.
However the results of blood tests taken that afternoon – which showed “grossly abnormal liver function and grossly abnormal kidney function” – were not followed up by her doctors or reported back by the lab for another 12 hours.
Her baby son, Dior, was delivered by C section shortly before 6am the following morning.
The hearing was told two doctors in Sligo agreed that the emergency procedure should be carried to deliver the baby and then Mrs Kivlehan should be treated in intensive care.
The civil action last year heard she was instead transferred to a side room off the maternity ward for a day and a half with no specialist care before being moved to ICU
– See more at: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/i-will-not-stand-for-this-its-a-coverup-shame-on-you-30436928.html#sthash.NpWRoLtv.dpuf
Mrs Kivlehan was two weeks over her due date when she arrived at Sligo General Hospital on September 20 in labour.
However the results of blood tests taken that afternoon – which showed “grossly abnormal liver function and grossly abnormal kidney function” – were not followed up by her doctors or reported back by the lab for another 12 hours.
Her baby son, Dior, was delivered by C section shortly before 6am the following morning.
The hearing was told two doctors in Sligo agreed that the emergency procedure should be carried to deliver the baby and then Mrs Kivlehan should be treated in intensive care.
The civil action last year heard she was instead transferred to a side room off the maternity ward for a day and a half with no specialist care before being moved to ICU.
– See more at: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/i-will-not-stand-for-this-its-a-coverup-shame-on-you-30436928.html#sthash.NpWRoLtv.dpuf
Mrs Kivlehan was two weeks over her due date when she arrived at Sligo General Hospital on September 20 in labour.
However the results of blood tests taken that afternoon – which showed “grossly abnormal liver function and grossly abnormal kidney function” – were not followed up by her doctors or reported back by the lab for another 12 hours.
Her baby son, Dior, was delivered by C section shortly before 6am the following morning.
The hearing was told two doctors in Sligo agreed that the emergency procedure should be carried to deliver the baby and then Mrs Kivlehan should be treated in intensive care.
The civil action last year heard she was instead transferred to a side room off the maternity ward for a day and a half with no specialist care before being moved to ICU.
– See more at: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/i-will-not-stand-for-this-its-a-coverup-shame-on-you-30436928.html#sthash.NpWRoLtv.dpuf
The hearing was told two doctors in Sligo agreed that the emergency procedure should be carried to deliver the baby and then Mrs Kivlehan should be treated in intensive care.
The civil action last year heard she was instead transferred to a side room off the maternity ward for a day and a half with no specialist care before being moved to ICU.
– See more at: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/i-will-not-stand-for-this-its-a-coverup-shame-on-you-30436928.html#sthash.NpWRoLtv.dpuf
Who is most at risk due to ‘Care’ in our Maternity services?
We know that our maternity services are dangerously under staffed, we know there are no national polices for screening and there are other national policies which are also lacking. It is not just a case of doctors differ and patients die, it is that depending on where you are in the country, the level of ‘Care’ and the consistency of ‘Care’ varies greatly, even in the same units but from week day to weekend.
But it varies even more so if you are woman who is from a minority in Ireland, this has been born out by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre Severe Maternal Morbidity Report 2011
As Sinéad Redmond a maternity rights activist and an AIMS Ireland committee member said
“This is a link to the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre Severe Maternal Morbidity Report 2011. Page 10 points out that maternal morbidity (severe maternal medical complications occurring during pregnancy, delivery and the post-natal period) occurred disproportionately among Traveller women and women of colour.
These women also die during pregnancy, delivery and the post-natal period in disproportionate amounts to their representation in the Irish population.
There appears to be no work in progress or completed (or suggested, that I’m aware of) to investigate the causes of this (institutional racism is of course an obvious one, as was apparent in the ‘care’ given to Bimbo Onanuga), and thus no attempts underway to tackle this. ”
All of these women died in a 3 year period, while in the ‘Care’ of our ‘world class’ Maternity services. Their deaths have caused by medical mis adventure, or failure in basic care. I do not think they are the only ones, but these are 4 which we have heard about due to their loved ones insisting on an inquest and investigation.
Ireland is more diverse then it was 15 years ago, but it seems that institutional racism is happening in our health services. I had hoped that we would do better when it came to dealing with people of a range of backgrounds who are here to be part of our society and to raise to have their families.
Aims Ireland has been doing it’s best to point out where our maternity services falls short but it seems that again this is a story which the media is not interested in covering.
Survivors for Symphysiotomy address the UN #ICCPR
Yesterday I attended the Irish Council for Civil Liberties media green room for the appearance of Ireland in front of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
In the room were a number of groups which had sent in submissions to the Human Rights committees and who had people over in Geneva. Atheist Ireland, Pavee point, Irish Traveler Movement, Irish Family Planning Association I was there to support the spokesperson for the Abortion Rights Campaign and to live tweet from the room.
And what a room it was I found myself talking to several ladies who were there with the Sourvivors for Symphysiotomy. They were easy to spot, ladies of a certain age, turn out smartly for the day, all walking with that slow waddling gait which denotes what the barbaric procedure of symphysiotomy did to their bodies and which they live with every day. They were polite, cheery, hopeful and most of all determined.
Over the course of the day, given where I was sitting several of the ladies asked were the toilets were, one of the issues they have to live with is that they have to make many trips to the loo, due to the damage done to their bodies. Given the room we were in the nearest toilets were either down stairs or a walk to the other side of the hotel. Both of which were a less then a 3 min stroll for me but for the survivors for symphysiotomy it is a much long trip. Also many of the survivors for symphysiotomy also can’t sit for very long due to the pain and constant discomfort they are in, most of them were not up to stay for the second half of the session.
As I was there to represent the Abortion Rights Campaign I was wearing my badge and when people were introducing themselves they said with org they were with. While I didn’t flinch I found myself worrying that some of the ladies would take it badly that I was there with ARC. But none of them turned a hair and a few of them were very supportive. It was lovely to chat with them, to have them say they are not giving up and we should not give up and to keep fighting; that for too long the Irish state and successive government have done wrong to generations of women in Ireland via the health services and lack there of.
I hope that these brave, brave women get the reparations and justice they are entitled to soon, before we loose more of them.