The consultant obstetrician who treated Savita Halappanavar at Galway University Hospital has told the inquest into Ms Halappanavar's death that she was considering going ahead with a termination following a deterioration of her patient's health. However, a subsequent scan revealed that the foetus had already died.

Dr Katherine Astbury made her comments at the second day of the inquest into the death of the 31-year-old last October.

The inquest is examining the factors that may have contributed to the death of Ms Halappanavar. She was admitted to University Hospital Galway on October 21, 2012, when she was 17 weeks pregnant and was found to be miscarrying.

She died from septicaemia on October 28, having reportedly been refused a termination.

According to Dr Astbury, when asked by Ms Halappanavar if she could have a termination, she explained that as there was no risk to her life at that time, she could not do this due to the legal position in Ireland.

However, when Ms Halappanavar's health started to deteriorate the next day, Dr Astbury said at this point she knew she might ‘have no option but to consider termination regardless of the foetal heart'.

She sought a second opinion from another obstetrician at the hospital on the matter.

However, a subsequent scan revealed that the foetus had no heartbeat and it was delivered naturally. Ms Halappanavar's health continued to deteriorate and she died on October 28 of septicaemia due to E.Coli.

Dr Astbury is due to take the stand today to answer questions about what she told the inquest yesterday.

On Monday, Ms Halappanavar's husband, Praveen, told the inquest that Dr Astbury had said that a termination could not be carried out because ‘this is a Catholic country'. Dr Astbury is expected to be asked about these alleged comments today.

The inquest, which began on Monday and is expected to last around eight days, is taking place in Galway before Galway West coroner, Dr Ciaran McLoughlin.