Marie O’Connor, chair of the Survivors of Symphysiotomy, with members of her group and supporters outside the Department of the Taoiseach in September
Symphysiotomies – which involved the sawing through of a pregnant woman’s pelvic bone to allow her to deliver her child – were carried out on around 1,500 women in Ireland, some of those women as young as 15.
In October, Al Jazeera reported that a symphysiotomy took place in Ireland in 2005, while it’s believed another took place just last year.
Most of the women did not know what was happening, nor did they give their consent.
The controversial closing date for applications to the symphysiotomy redress scheme was today – much to the dismay of the Survivors of Symphysiotomy group.
BBC Radio Four’s Women’s Hour show did a piece on the issue this morning. During the show, a symphysiotomy survivor, Margaret, told presenter Jenni Murray of her own experience fifty years ago, while Marie O’Connor, chair of the group, Survivors of Symphysiotomy also spoke to Ms Murray.
From the show:
Margaret: “In the afternoon, I had started labour and when I hadn’t the baby by, I can’t tell you exactly the time but shall we say three or four o’clock, he [doctor] came along and he said, ‘we will have that baby in a few moments’. I then had an anaesthetic and, when I woke up, I was totally incontinent, the baby had been delivered but I didn’t see him. And he was taken away. The bed was soaking wet underneath me. And this incontinence has remained with me even to this day. Though I have had several operations to have had it repaired, nothing has really worked.”
Jenni Murray: “Margaret, what had been said to you about what was going to happen to you?”
Margaret: “Nothing. And it was as simple as that, nothing.”
Murray: “And what explanation were you given when you came around?”
Margaret: “When I came around, I was in extreme pain. I asked the doctor, he was standing over me, ‘have I had a caesarean section?’. And he answered me, by saying, ‘It was an entirely different procedure’. And I don’t think, at that particular time, as we are talking about Ireland of 50 years ago, you didn’t really ask questions, you just did as you were told.”
Murray: “When did you find out what had been done?”
Margaret: “I had no idea for years, no idea for years.”
Murray: “And what were you told when you did make enquiries about it and found out what the procedure was?”
Margaret: “I didn’t make enquiries about the procedure because I thought it was something normal. This is one of the problems.”
Murray: “So, just explain to me what they have actually done.”
Margaret: “They had cut right through my pelvis and straight down, through my bladder and I’ve had my bowel damaged aswell. I went back of course, for my six weeks check-up. Now, to get into the car, and to go home was the first effort. I couldn’t walk, the doctor told me nothing was wrong with me but my nerves. Then my feet had to be cut together, and I had to be turned around to get my legs in and the same procedure for getting out. The same procedure took place for going to bed and the same procedure took place to get up.”
Murray: “What other operations have you had to have subsequently?”
Margaret: “So then I went in to our local hospital and the surgeon there said, I think I will refrain from saying what he said to me. I don’t think I will tell you what he said it was so awful. Anyway he decided he would do a sling, this would help. The sling is an incision from one hip to the other and they proceeded to pull your bladder up to try to tip it backwards to stop it leaking but of course he cut away the top of my bladder. It wasn’t there, so he couldn’t do that. I don’t know what he thought he was doing but anywyay, that is what happened. But then that particular sling went wrong very badly whether it was done wrong, of course needless to say, I wasn’t told but I swelled and my insides swelled and so I was taken to the theatre in the middle of the night and they undone it and then I went to that obstetrician who did the sling and that sling was correct and I was 40% continent after it. So when I went back to him, after six weeks, he said, ‘if you’d like to go for a baby again, if you’re not happy about having only the one child, perhaps you would then consider, you’re going to have to have a Caesarean section, because all the damage you now have.’ And I said, ‘yes, I will’. And I had three Caesarean sections without any problem.”
Murray: “What’s your reaction, Margaret, now to the amount of compensation that’s being offered?”
Margaret: “Well now the amount of compensation, actually, first of all my main thing is, I need to hear them say what they did to us was dreadful. Now I have had two ankle suspension done as well, I have had a decompression in my spine because I cannot walk properly and I can’t manage stairs which is in evidence here today. But I would like first for them to tell us that this was the wrong procedure and surely they can say that the damage they did to us was wrong and that we’ve had a lifetime of suffering. And he [Taoiseach Enda Kenny] thinks €50,000 is an offer? Forget it.”Continue reading →
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Danielle writes:
