Dhara's husband: Medical staff are not to blame, the system is broken

A file photo of Michael Kivlehan and his wife Dhara Kivlehan, who died a week after her baby son was born in Sligo General Hospital in 2010.

A file photo of Michael Kivlehan and his wife Dhara Kivlehan who died a week after her baby son was born in Sligo General Hospital.

thumbnail: A file photo of Michael Kivlehan and his wife Dhara Kivlehan, who died a week after her baby son was born in Sligo General Hospital in 2010.
thumbnail: A file photo of Michael Kivlehan and his wife Dhara Kivlehan who died a week after her baby son was born in Sligo General Hospital.
Greg Harkin

The husband of Dhara Kivlehan has insisted he bears no grudge against the medical staff at the hospital where blunders led to the death of his wife.

Dhara, who was 28, died in September 2010, a few days after giving birth to her son Dior.

On Monday a jury at an inquest in Carrick on Shannon found that Dhara had died as a result of medical misadventure.

As the HSE said a new internal inquiry had begun following the verdict, Dhara's husband Michael revealed he did not blame staff at Sligo Regional Hospital.

The inquest heard that staff in Sligo should have made sure Dhara had seen renal and liver consultants sooner.

She later died at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital, transferred there because no beds were available at either St Vincent's hospital in Dublin or in Galway University Hospital.

"I do not bear any grudge or ill-will to the staff in Sligo," said Michael. "There is no point in going through life holding grudges. At the end of the day, it was not the medical staff who were at fault in my opinion it was the system which was at fault. The inquest showed that the system isn't working,

"We discovered an internal report written just a few weeks after Dhara died which recommended a national system should be put in place where regional hospitals could find out quickly if there were beds available in specialist tertiary hospitals.

"Four years on and that still hasn't happened."

He said he had tried to explain the inquest to his son Dior.

"He just said 'well done, Dad' but some day I will be able to explain it further to him but at least now we know what happened."

Dhara died from multiple organ failure and HELLP syndrome, a rare form of pre-eclampsia which is fatal in one in every 100 cases.

Michael was supported throughout the inquest by Sean Rowlette whose wife Sally died at the same hospital from HELLP syndrome on February 5 last year, leaving behind newborn baby Sally Jnr, Leanne (9), Abbie (7) and four-year-old Joseph.

Sean said: "I have supported Michael through this and he has supported me. I too want answers about my wife's care in Sligo and an inquest will be held in December.

"It has been a very tough 20 months. No family should have to go through what Michael and I and our families have gone through."

A Sligo hospital spokesman said: "We are commencing a review of the coroner's verdict and will decide on the actions required."