The husband of Dhara Kivlehan, who died in 2010 just days after giving birth at Sligo General Hospital, has said that he hopes lessons have been learned from the tragedy.

Michael Kivlehan made his comments after the jury into the inquest of his wife's death returned a unanimous verdict of medical misadventure. His wife had given birth in Sligo General, but died in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast days later as a result of multi-organ failure.

Speaking at the final day of the inquest, expert witness, Dr Peter Boylan, the former master of the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, said that there were deficiencies in the clinical care of Mrs Kivlehan, and deficiencies at a systemic level.

He noted that her condition was extremely complicated and she was probably in the wrong place when admitted to Sligo General and should have been transferred to a specialist centre earlier.

Mrs Kivlehan had developed partial HELLP syndrome, which is a severe strain of pre-eclampsia, but she also had acute liver and kidney dysfunction. Her baby was delivered by caesarean section, but she remained very ill afterwards. She had a distended stomach and according to Dr Boylan, nobody seemed to consider intra-abdominal bleeding as a cause.

If this had been identified and dealt with earlier, the outcome may have been different, although this is conjecture, he said.

He also acknowledged a lack of continuity of consultant care, but insisted that this was an issue in hospitals nationwide.

Speaking after the verdict, the solicitor representing the Kivlehan family, Roger Murray, said this marked a ‘culmination of a four-year struggle for truth and justice'.

He said the family had to fight just to have an inquest held in the first place and described it as a ‘David and Goliath struggle in terms of the resources that the State could bring to bear on this'.

The HSE has apologised in full to the Kivlehan family.