Using Medical Data for an ECG Monitor Reconstruction Reveals Truth Behind Woman’s Death.
Savita Halappanavar, a young Indian woman died in an Irish hospital on the 28th of October 2012. Savita had presented at the hospital with her husband Praveen on the 21st of October 2012 with severe back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant and was found to be miscarrying. Her request for a termination was refused because the fetal heartbeat was still present. Savita went into septic shock after spontaneously delivering a female fetus three days after she was admitted.
She died in intensive care at 1.09 am on October 28th. Furthermore, the healthcare record documentation of Savita Halappanavar’s care lacked detail in relation to her clinical status and the potential risk of clinical deterioration at identified times throughout her care pathway. The timeline between Savita’s initial diagnosis of impending pregnancy loss and her time of death is the string that bears truth in this tragic event. The Health Information and Quality Authority published a report into the incident. Access to this data leaves us better equipped to scrutinize information that expresses both truth and history.
Taking the data from Savita’s healthcare record in University Hospital Galway and findings from the HIQA report, this video aims to replace moral posturing with an honest assessment of information.