It has emerged that the tragic death of Ms Bimbo Onanuga in 2010 was most likely caused by an earlier abortion. See RTE report
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell in delivering a ruling of death by
medical misadventure in the case of Ms Onanuga, who died at the Mater Hospital
in 2010 after being transferred there from the Rotunda Hospital, found that a
principal risk factor in her death was a pre-existing scar caused by an earlier
abortion, along with the use of misoprostol, which had caused her uterus to
contract.
Irish Medicines Board Director of Scientific Affairs, Dr J M
Morris in his evidence to the Court said that misoprostal was not approved for
use to induce labour. Such use is called off-label and is done on the
responsibility of the doctor who gives it.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell found that a principal risk factor
in the death of Ms Bimbo Onanuga was a pre-existing scar caused by an earlier
abortion, along with the use of misoprostol, which had caused the uterus to
contract.
The inquest heard that Ms Onanuga’s uterus had ruptured, and
her baby had delivered through a rupture, into the abdominal cavity. The
inquest also heard that the postmortem found that the site of the rupture had
been weakened by scarring caused by an earlier abortion.
Dr Sam Coulter-Smith, Master of the Rotunda, told the
inquest that it was “probably reasonably safe to assume” that the scarring had
been caused during a previous abortion, when Ms Onanuga's womb had been
perforated, and that this predisposed her to rupture. He also said that it was an
"unrecognised perforation" and that the Rotunda had no information
that any complication had occurred during the abortion.
Dr Sean Ó Domhnaill commenting on the case on behalf of the
Life Institute offered his sympathies to Ms Onanuga's family and said that the
media would be doing a “huge disservice to women if they ignored the central
fact in the case - that scarring from an earlier abortion had led to this
women's tragic death."
Dr O’ Domhnaill said that the case showed that abortion clinics posed a real
and substantial risk to women's lives, and that abortionists were all too often
"substandard practitioners who caused physical harm to women and did not
even bother to report it".
"Clearly, the Rotunda were made aware of the earlier
abortion, but not of the complication - the perforation to the womb - which
caused the scarring. The question is: did Ms Onanuga even know about the injury
caused to her by the abortionist? Is this yet another case of abortion
malpractice where women die?" he asked.
