Health: HSE Cock-up again.. Helpline now open - 1800 200 529
A north Dublin mother has come forward to expose another astounding cock-up on the part of the Health Services Executive.
Melissa Redmond and her husband Michael were left reeling after they went for a scan over a year ago at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Co. Louth, to be told their unborn child would not make it to full-term. 
Devastated with the news at the time, Melissa, who had previously experienced a miscarriage and a successful pregnancy, found it difficult to believe that the sonographer's results were accurate as she had no symptoms of miscarriage. The following day she went for a second opinion and a second scan to discover there was in fact an existing heartbeat, a new life. She went on to have a happy healthy baby boy 13 weeks ago.
Thankfully due to Melissa's motherly instinct and her refusal to take the abortion drug offered to terminate the pregnancy, she has substituted herself a world of pain for a world of joy. The HSE's answer? An out-dated ultrasound machine. Sorry!
How many women have experienced this negligence? Will they EVER know if their scan results were correct? What are they now to think? Women who have had a history of miscarriage may have been told the foetus died when in actual fact it was viable. Sickening.
I cried for those women on hearing this unbelievable news. Then I looked over at my two-month old son and thanked God and everyone that he was sitting there healthy as a result of correct examination and not some fuck-up by our health service. Unfortunately, the only health service we currently have.
The Helpline number is 1800 200 529 and is open this morning at 9am.