Memorial dedicated to Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman living in Ireland, who died of sepsis after being denied an abortion on the grounds that the fetus she was miscarrying still had a detectable heartbeat.
I had a similar patient I had to treat for septic shock because the hospital I work at is a Catholic hospital. This lady had a pre-viable fetus whose head was already out of the vagina and had a 0% chance of survival but they made the patient sit like that for several days until the fetus’ heart beat stopped. Then I had to admit her to ICU for septic shock from chorioamnionitis. All of which could have been prevented if anyone had any logic, “oh hey this fetus can not possibly survive but the mom might die too if we wait”. Luckily she survived but she went through a lot of unnecessary risk and pain as well as the trauma of having her almost-dead baby sticking out of her vagina for days. Abhorrent.
FYI this happened in 2012. Ireland had a referendum to legalize abortion last year and it passed 66% to 34%. The Irish people had been fighting for the vote for years before but the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) at the time was against the idea of a referendum on the topic. When he stepped down as party leader the new leader announced a referendum pretty soon after taking office.
Edit: fixed the date of Savitas death. And the Taoiseach situation was a bit more nuanced then how i simplified it too. Read u/ucd_pete or u/limbolimbic comments for more details on that.
isaywekeepit on May 18th, 2019 at 21:22 UTC »
Ireland legalized abortion last year, recognizing its previous laws as outdated and inhumane. It's so sad to see the US go the opposite way.
Also FYI Savita had a husband and two young children.
Medcait on May 18th, 2019 at 23:42 UTC »
I had a similar patient I had to treat for septic shock because the hospital I work at is a Catholic hospital. This lady had a pre-viable fetus whose head was already out of the vagina and had a 0% chance of survival but they made the patient sit like that for several days until the fetus’ heart beat stopped. Then I had to admit her to ICU for septic shock from chorioamnionitis. All of which could have been prevented if anyone had any logic, “oh hey this fetus can not possibly survive but the mom might die too if we wait”. Luckily she survived but she went through a lot of unnecessary risk and pain as well as the trauma of having her almost-dead baby sticking out of her vagina for days. Abhorrent.
Mrbrionman on May 18th, 2019 at 23:57 UTC »
FYI this happened in 2012. Ireland had a referendum to legalize abortion last year and it passed 66% to 34%. The Irish people had been fighting for the vote for years before but the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) at the time was against the idea of a referendum on the topic. When he stepped down as party leader the new leader announced a referendum pretty soon after taking office.
Edit: fixed the date of Savitas death. And the Taoiseach situation was a bit more nuanced then how i simplified it too. Read u/ucd_pete or u/limbolimbic comments for more details on that.