A GP on trial for the manslaughter of her severely disabled daughter has told the court how her world fell apart when a consultant told her that her infant child would be "severely mentally retarded."
Dr Bernadette Scully (58) of Emvale, Bachelor's Walk, Tullamore, Co Offaly has denied the manslaughter of Emily Barut (11) by an act of gross negligence.
The prosecution alleges she gave toxic amounts of the sedative chloral hydrate to her daughter on 15 September 2012.
Dr Scully was in the witness box giving evidence at the Central Criminal Court.
She told of her first marriage to a colleague which fell apart after it became apparent that he was homosexual.
She said she had a second relationship and had always wanted a baby of her own but struggled to conceive, undergoing two unsuccessful IVF attempts and was advised by the consultant to "go again."
The third 'took' but she experienced a lot of sickness and bleeding.
Emily was born at the Coombe hospital on December 21 2000.
Dr Scully said she realises now that she wasn't getting enough movement during the pregnancy and had told consultant but he thought everything looked ok.
At the 37 week scan however, the technician said she didn't think the head was big enough.
Dr Scully became emotional as she recalled how the labour ward "was so quiet" during the birth but the consultant said: "You've a lovely quiet little girl."
The baby wouldn't gain weight and was jaundiced.
Dr Scully said: "You're supposed to be a doctor but in this case you're a mother and an older mother."
"A 14 year old would be more streetwise and up to date than I was," she added.
"I knew she wasn't right," she said.
At two weeks old, the baby went to sleep and wouldn't wake up and she knew "this wasn't ok."
She drove to Crumlin Children's hospital with Emily's father with the child in the backseat and described how she "fell into the arms" of an African doctor and said: "She's not ok."
A paediatrician arrived and took one look at Emily and got a measuring tape and started measuring the baby's head, as well as Dr Scully's and the baby's father's head.
She didn't say very much but began to do investigations, with a CT scan and MRI scan, she said.
Dr Scully then told the court that the doctor had come into the room with a centile graph and she gesticulated how Emily was "that much" below the norm.
Dr Scully said she "fell back" and said "oh my god" because on seeing the graph, she could understand how bad things were.
Later, Professor McMenamin came into the room. Dr Scully recalled how it was very cold weather outside, she was wearing a heavy dress and was very tired.
Professor McMenamin told her that Emily's head was "significantly small" and said: "She'll have severe mental retardation. She probably develop epilepsy. She may not walk. She may not talk. She may have difficulty hearing."
"I said 'how can he know all of that, she's this size,'" Dr Scully told the court.
Professor McMenamin left the room but came back in again, saying: "I mean severe retardation. I don't mean mild."
"My world fell apart," said Dr Scully.
She began to crying in court as she said how she had said: "You don't know. She's too small. You can't know all that."
Dr Scully said she subsequently came to respect the professor and developed a friendship with him.
Dr Scully said her child had a first epileptic fit at the 13 months and as her child grew older, her fits grew more severe.
Emily would have a reaction to the drugs ordinarily prescribed for epilepsy, with projectile vomiting.
At 16 months, she had her first screaming episode at 4am one night and was a dusky blue colour and these episodes began to occur frequently.
A consultant at Portiuncula hospital in Ballinasloe said: "Bernie, we can't leave her like this" and gave her chloral hydrate and the child went off to sleep.
"The relief was just huge," said Dr Scully.
It was mentioned in her notes at every hospital they attended that Emily was taking chloral hydrate and Dr Scully said she used it as a "last resort."
"Emily could be crying two days before I'd give it to her,"she said.
The trial continues.
Previous evidence
An inspector has told the trial that investigating gardai had not been ‘blinkered’ about that being the only possible cause of death.
Inspector Ger Glavin was being cross examined by the defence yesterday in the trial of the 58-year-old.
The trial has heard that Emily had severe epilepsy, as well as microcephaly and cerebral palsy. She had the mental age of a six-month old, and couldn’t move or speak.
Insp Glavin gave evidence on Monday of the four interviews conducted with Ms Scully following her arrest in April 2014.
Ms Scully had explained that Emily had been in a lot of pain for the last two weeks of her life, after having a procedure to replace the tube into her stomach through which she received fluids and medication.
She said she had given her chloral hydrate when she became upset at 2am and 6am, and had given it again when she had an ‘unprecedented’ seizure around 11am. Ms Scully accepted that she had given her too much.
Kenneth Fogarty SC, defending, cross examined the yesterday, pointing to other possible contributors to her death mentioned in the post-mortem report. These included two of her illnesses and inflammation of the lungs.
“Were the investigators’ minds closed off to other possibilities?” he was asked.
Insp Glavin said that consideration had been given to other possible causes of death, but that ‘there were excessive amounts of chloral hydrate administered’.
He said the full post-mortem report had been put to the accused in interview, and that she had ‘ample opportunity to highlight any other issues as to cause of death’.
“The gardai did not enter the interview room blinkered as to chloral hydrate being everything,” he said. “As an investigator and interviewer, I could not ignore the figures Dr Scully produced during interview and also the figures produced in the toxicology report.”
The trial has already heard that 220 micrograms of the drug’s metabolite, trichloroethanol, was found in Emily’s bloodstream after her death, and the inspector was cross examined about this.
Mr Fogarty SC asked if it had ever been part of the investigation to find out ‘what type of quantity of chloral hydrate would give rise to what type of quantity of trichloroethanol’.
“It was, yes,” he replied, adding that working it out was ‘left to the experts’.
“With all the experts involved, there’s no formula before the jury that equates a level of chloral hydrate with a level of trichloroethanol,” suggested Mr Fogarty.
“I think you tried to illicit that from a number of expert witnesses,” replied the inspector.
The jury also heard from a consultant neuropathologist, who examined samples of Emily’s brain after her death
Dr Francesca Brett told the defence that she had found evidence of old damage to the brain from a history of seizures, along with more accute damage from what she thought was a more recent event.
She explained that the ‘red, dead neurons’ she found were something that would be seen in people, who had survived six to eight hours after an incident.
The prosecution has now closed its case. The trial continues this (Wednesday) morning before Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy and a jury of seven women and five men.
Online Editors
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