This article is from page 39 of the 2013-12-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 39 JPG
A BALLYVAUGHAN grandmother who says she was ‘butchered’ by doctors when giving birth to her first son in 1965, is appealing to the Health Service Executive (HSE) to locate records of the birth, The Clare People reported in May.
Elizabeth “Ellen” Moore says that she has wanted to die on a number of occasions over the past 48 years following her symphysiotomy, which has left her in near constant pain and completely incontinent.
This procedure, which involved breaking a woman’s pelvic bone during labour, was conducted without her knowledge or permission in September of 1965. Mrs Moore has recently obtained all her medical records from the HSE under Freedom of Information, but records of the birth of her first son and the controvertial symphysiotomy have been lost. Ellen, who has five grown up children now living in Shannon and East Clare, says she wants the records so she can finally explain to her children why their mother was the way she was.
“My family are so supportive, they always have been. Sometimes I just curl up on the bed and hope that the pain will go away. It is difficult, [but] I had to get up every morning. I had five children, I had to keep going,” she said.
“There were times when I wanted to die, I wanted to get into bed and never get out of it, after I’d had an accident down the town or something.
“Nobody can give me back the years of my life. I should have had a good life, I should have been able to go places and do things but I’ve been tied to pain. I think if I felt sorry for myself, I’d start to crack up.
“It is so strange that they don’t seem to have the records I want considering all the other records that they gave me. I am still hopeful that they can be found. If I could get my years back, if I could look at these and ask what they were doing. I was butchered, that’s what happened, like a lot of other women.
In April, Ellen and other members of the Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SOS) group received the news they were waiting for. The Government passed a bill which would see some redress provided to the victims of symphysiotomy. It is unclear what form this redress will take and whether the full release of HSE records will be part of the redress process.