PRAVEEN Halappanavar has spoken of how he received hate mail in the aftermath of the death of his wife Savita.

Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on RTE Radio this morning, he spoke of how campaign groups have been targeting him.

“I have been receiving abusive letters from different campaigners”, he said.

“There is one particular campaigner who writes again and again has told me to leave the country, and to fix the mess in my own country before I try and fix any mess here – it’s quite hurtful.”

He branded the HSE report into the death of his wife last October as a ‘whitewash’ and said Ms Halappanavar would support him in taking legal action against Galway University Hospital.

“Someone has to answer why she died, and I haven’t got an answer yet. The HSE report was very anonymous and was a complete whitewash, it was more of an audit.”

“We did push a public inquiry, which never happened, and we see this as the only option left to us.

“There are some midwives who never attended the inquest, and that bothers me”

“What happened? Why did they not treat her the way she should have been? I felt something was going wrong, but I never thought I could lose her. I just want to seek the truth”.

Ms Halappanavar (31) died at Galway University Hospital last October 28. She had presented a week earlier with severe back pain. She was 17 weeks pregnant, and was found to be miscarrying.

However, she was refused a request for a termination because the foetal heartbeat was still present. She was told a termination was not possible in such circumstances, and that it was “a Catholic thing”.

He is to issue medical negligence proceedings in the High Court against the hospital.

Speaking this morning, he also spoke of how he never had trust in the HSE investigation into his wife’s death, and was only informed it was to be published the night before it was made public.

“I was on my way home the day before, and I never knew it was published, I just received an email the night before.

“The HSE investigation panel was set up but I never had trust in the HSE, there is no truth coming out of the HSE report.

“I do respect the chairperson but also understand the report was recommendations rather than getting to the bottom of the truth. It added nothing new to the outcome of the inquest.

He added that he still is grieving the loss of his wife, but that religion and work have helped him cope.

“The last few months have been very tough, I’m still coping with the loss,” he said.

“I’ve just started to realise Savita is not with me, and I can still feel all the memories. Every single bit of my life is full of memories” he said.

“We both had very good faith in religion and the almighty, but I’m not able to understand why it happened. Every day I pray and ask why this happened to us, but I’ve never lost trust and hope.”

He also spoke of his sympathy for the staff at the hospital, and the stress the death and subsequent inquest has caused them.

“I could see the stress of the nurses, I could see it in their eyes and I do understand their feelings, it’s not easy on them as well”.

Online Editors