The High Court approved a settlement of €1.9 million plus costs in the case of Nayyab Tariq, who died after childbirth at Mayo University Hospital, Castlebar on March 22, 2020. The action was taken by her husband Ayaz Ul Hassan, who was represented by one of our medical negligence solicitors from our Galway office. He took a case against the HSE for alleged medical negligence and breach of duty following her death.
In taking the case, he alleged that Mayo University Hospital committed “a series of gross breaches of duty, in particular by miscommunication, non-communication and delaying in the recognition and treatment of shock as a result of significant post-partum haemorrhage”. He claimed in the case that the signs of the post-partum haemorrhage were not recognised by the hospital.
The Court heard that following the birth of her daughter, there were complications while Ms. Tariq was undergoing surgery to remove her placenta and she passed away in “heartrending and devastating circumstances”
An inquest into the death of Ms. Tariq was held in September 2021, and returned a verdict of “death by misadventure”. The Saolta hospital group conducted a review of the circumstances surrounding Ms. Tariiq’s death. The review concluded that that the delay in recognising the signs of her shock from blood loss was a causative factor in her death, along with the failure to implement basic measures for postpartum haemorrhage. In a letter to Mr. Ul Hassan tunreservedly apologised for the failings in the standard of care at the hospital. The HSE has admitted liability.
Mr. Ul Hassan, is a biomedical scientist, and met Ms Tariq, in 2014. The couple married in 2017, and began living together in Ireland in 2018 when Ms. Tariq moved from Lahore in Pakistan. In 2019 she graduated from University College Cork and was working as a pharmacist and living in Ballyhaunis at the time of her death.
Speaking outside the court, Mr. Ul Hassan said he is “still processing everything” following his wife’s death and, adding: “I don’t think it’s something that can be put into words. It’s just something no one should have to face and go through, and I never got to experience the fatherhood that I should have and was forced into being a single parent and raising my daughter.”
He added that “he could not have done it without the support of his family and friends”. He said his daughter Nayyab, who was named after her mother, is “doing good, she’s very good”. She will be four years old in March and she is having a last day of school today before her Christmas break. “I can’t wait to go back and pick her up.”
Johan Verbruggen and Ayaz Ul Hassan outside the High Court IMAGE: Jane Moore / The Journal
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