Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar (34), an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, says she asked several times over a three-day period that the pregnancy be terminated. He says that, having been told she was miscarrying, and after one day in severe pain, Ms Halappanavar asked for a medical termination.
This was refused, he says, because the foetal heartbeat was still present and they were told, “This is a Catholic country”.
Even though Halappanavar, a Hindu, was emphatic that she was neither Irish nor Catholic, and even though she developed shakes and shivering and was vomiting, the hospital said there was nothing to be done.
Two and a half days later, the fetal heartbeat stopped. Heartbreaking, but the story gets even worse.
After the dead fetus was removed, Halappanavar was taken to intensive care where she died on October the 28th. Two days later, an autopsy found she succumbed to septicemia and E.coli ESBL.
Re: In other news: Woman Denied Abortion Dies in Agony at Hospital
Was just at a mall and saw the poor woman’s face plastered all over the newspapers. Front page news in Ireland. How very tragic. Some people are still defending the anti-abortion laws: