‘I’ll never stop asking why’...

Grieving mum still seeking answers on organ retention a decade on

Almost a decade to the day that Paula and Jonny Doyle buried their newborn son Tadhg, the Cavan family are still seeking answers as to why parts of their baby’s body were retained for more than a year after his tragic death.

On June 7, 2016, two days after Tadhg was stillborn at Cavan General Hospital, a post-mortem examination was carried out. Two days later, the grieving parents laid their son to rest.

What they did not know was that Tadhg’s brain and left lung had been retained following the examination and had not been returned with the rest of his body.

It would be another almost 17 months before the family learned the upsetting truth.

Why is a question, Paula says, no doctor, government minister, health official or hospital representative has ever properly answered. And why, despite years of controversy surrounding organ-retention practices in Ireland, has nobody ever been held accountable?

As the tenth anniversary of the post-mortem passes, Paula told The Anglo-Celt she remains determined to secure definitive answers about what happened. “This is not acceptable,” she says. “I won’t stop until I get these answers.”

Old wounds

Like many grieving parents searching desperately for answers, Paula and her husband Jonny had agreed to a post-mortem examination following their son Tadhg’s death. They hoped it might explain why their baby had died so unexpectedly, and provide information that could help with future pregnancies.

They received the post-mortem report in November of that year.

Then, a full year later, in November 2017, Paula received an unexpected phone call from a morgue official - one that shattered her family all over again.

The caller asked what she wanted done with her son’s brain and left lung.

“We’d buried our son 17 months ago,” Paula recalls. “I was in a diner in Ballyjamesduff. Our two girls were in pre-school at the time and I was having coffee. I trying to focus on what this person was saying to me on the other end of the line. What was he talking about?”

According to Paula, the explanation centred on a consent form she completed hours after delivering her stillborn baby. Exhausted, traumatised and still in shock, Paula says she “ticked every box”.

“Had I simply said for them to dispose of the organs, I would never have known they were kept,” she says. “It was like losing him all over again.”

Without answers

Tadhg’s organs had been retained following the post-mortem.

Paula says neither she nor her husband were informed of the retention and, to this day, they have never been told why.

What troubles Paula most, she says, is that the post-mortem report did not identify any abnormalities in either organ that might explain the practice.

“I’ve read that report over and over,” she says. “I mean I’ve studied it in detail. There is nothing there that explains why his brain and left lung were kept.”

For Paula, that unanswered question remains central to her campaign and the reason she continues to write to every available office - from the Taoiseach to the Minister for Health, and anyone else who might listen - in search of an explanation.

“It feels cruel,” she says. “If there had been some disease, infection or condition that could help explain his death or help my surviving children, I could understand further investigation. But nobody has ever told me that.”

Paula says neither the family nor their legal representatives ever received an explanation for the retention. The question did not form part of the inquest, which took place in November 2021, and returned a verdict of death by medical misadventure.

Wider controversy

The Doyle family’s ordeal did not end with that phone call. Because of ongoing legal and coronial proceedings relating to Tadhg’s death, his organs could not immediately be returned.

It was not until March 2022 - five years and nine months after Tadhg’s initial burial - that the organs were finally released and Paula and Jonny reopened their son’s grave to bury them.

She describes the experience as “one of the most painful moments”.

As Paula searched for answers, she discovered, to her horror, that her family’s situation was not unique and that Tadhg’s case formed part of a broader controversy surrounding organ-retention practices in Ireland.

That same year, an RTÉ Investigates Primetime programme examined allegations that organs from babies and children had been retained without adequate consent or communication with families.

The programme highlighted concerns and the Doyles’ story also featured as part of it.

‘Deeply Troubling’

In April, Sinn Féin Senator Pauline Tully brought Paula’s case before the Seanad.

Addressing the chamber, Senator Tully recounted the circumstances surrounding Tadhg’s death, the subsequent retention of his organs and the years of distress experienced by the Doyle family.

The senator questioned whether affected families would ever receive explanations.

“His parents have never been told why his organs were kept, have never received an apology and do not feel anybody has been held accountable,” Sen Tully told the Upper House.

Responding on behalf of the Minister for Health, Minister of State Jennifer Murnane O’Connor acknowledged the seriousness of the issue and extended sympathies to affected families.

She described the retention controversies as “deeply troubling” and said significant reforms had since been introduced.

This year, Ireland’s Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Act 2024 began introducing a new regulatory framework around post-mortems, consent and organ retention.

The legislation was welcomed by families and campaigners who had fought for such reform for years.

Distressingly, the Celt has learned, the Doyles had to reopen their baby son’s grave for a third time in May 2023 to intern tissues samples belonging to their son that had been kept at Drogheda Hospital.

Ignored

But for Paula, while legislative changes may protect future families from experiencing similar trauma, she believes past cases still require investigation.

“It’s great that the law has changed,” she says. “But still nobody has ever sat down and explained why this has happened before now.”

Paula has written repeatedly to government ministers seeking meetings and support.

“Anything I can to move this forward,” says Paula, who points out that in nine years there have been three different Ministers for Health, including former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, current Tánaiste Simon Harris and Stephen Donnelly.

While successive administrations have expressed sympathy, none have offered her the meaningful support she believes is necessary to find the answers she so desperately seeks.

Paula has recently again written to the office of Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

“I get told my correspondence will be forwarded on,” she says. “But nobody actually contacts me.”

Persistence

Paula’s campaign for truth has unfolded alongside immense personal challenges.

In the years after Tadhg’s death, she fought lengthy legal battles to secure an inquest. During the same period, she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment while continuing to raise her children.

Despite everything, she continues to write letters and speak publicly about the issue.

She believes many families affected by organ-retention practices have simply become too exhausted to continue the fight, their anger blunted by institutional apathy.

“There is a feeling that, if they ignore you long enough, eventually you’ll stop talking. Stop writing. Stop asking questions,” she says. “But I can’t stop.”

Paula has previously spoken of the guilt she carried after experiencing reduced foetal movements in the days before Tadhg’s death, questioning whether she should have pushed harder to be heard while seeking medical help.

On June 4, 2016, a Doppler scan confirmed there was no heartbeat. The following day, she delivered her son, Tadhg, sleeping.

A decade later, Paula says that experience has shaped her determination not to remain silent in the face of unanswered questions.

“I want somebody to sit down and tell me why my son’s organs were kept,” she says. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

The HSE has been contacted for comment.