Dr. Peter Boylan:

Savita died from sepsis and septic shock. There is no question about that. There were deficiencies in her care. There is no question about that. However, had she had her pregnancy terminated when she asked for it in the first few days of admission, she would not have developed the sepsis because her uterus would have been empty. The unfortunate fact is that when the waters break the barrier to infection ascending from the outside into the womb is broken and so infection ascends into the womb and then there is a problem. If the womb is empty and the woman is delivered of her baby that does not happen.

If she had had her termination when she had asked for it, the question of developing sepsis and so on would not have arisen, we would never have heard of her and she would be alive today.

Regarding the socioeconomic risk, we take everything into account. However, it is not taken into account in current Irish legislation, under which we can only take into account risk of death or risk to physical or mental health, which should be considered together.