Abortion case medic admits failures THE consultant at the centre of the treatment of an Indian dentist who died in an Irish hospital after a miscarriage has admitted there were system failures in her care. Savita Halappanavar was 17 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to University Hospital Galway on October 21 last year and died a week later. Consultant obstetrician Katherine Astbury has told an inquest she was unaware of blood test abnormalities and said that the patient's vitals should have been checked more regularly after her foetal membrane ruptured. The senior medic was asked by Galway coroner Ciaran MacLoughlin if the two aspects of Halappanavar's care could be seen as system failures. "Yes," she replied. Halappanavar, 31, delivered a dead baby daughter on October 24 and died the following Sunday of a heart attack caused by septicaemia due to E coli. Astbury, who is accused of refusing Halappanavar's pleas because "Ireland is a Catholic country," said she refused to terminate the pregnancy two days after she was admitted as there was not a risk to her life. "She was well," said Dr Astbury under cross examination. There was no risk to her life. If you need to give somebody medication to deliver and there's a foetal heartbeat my understanding is that legally you are considered to be terminating. Astbury has denied making the Catholic reference.