A CAVAN hospital has relented to a pregnant woman’s request that she be allowed to harvest stem cells from her baby’s umbilical cord when she gives birth. Cavan General entered into a confidential deal with Catherina McCauley to have the procedure carried out after her case was highlighted by The Sunday Times.

McCauley, a scientist who was due to give birth this weekend, was told by hospital officials last month that staff would not permit her to collect stem cells from her newborn’s blood. McCauley, who wants to freeze the stem cells to combat illnesses her children may suffer in the future, has signed a legal waiver absolving Cavan General of liability should the procedure fail.

“I am delighted,” she said this weekend. “It is one less thing to worry about when I am in labour. I have to sign a legal document to cover the hospital’s liability concerns, but I really feel that progress has been made.”

Cavan General said it would not disclose the terms of the waiver because of patient confidentiality. It is understood that the hospital reversed its policy after sustained media pressure following the initial report in The Sunday Times three weeks ago.

McCauley, who later granted interviews to RTE and other media, was inundated with offers of help from medical staff around the country, who volunteered to collect the sample after she gave birth. Cavan General, whose own staff volunteered to assist McCauley, consulted lawyers and risk management specialists who finally brokered a deal last week.

Umbilical cord blood, which remains in the cord and placenta after birth, is normally discarded after the delivery. It is a rich source of stem cells, which are used in transplant medicine as an alternative to bone marrow.

McCauley has spent 10 years in America researching stem-cell therapy and has worked for pharmaceutical companies, Elan and Merck. She believes future medical breakthroughs will enable stem-cell therapies to treat a wide range of common illnesses.

Darcey Bussell, the British ballerina, and the footballer Thierry Henry are among those who have stored their children’s cord-blood stem cells.

There is no national policy governing the banking of blood cells. The National Maternity hospital, the Rotunda and the Coombe maternity hospitals in Dublin do not support requests to collect cord blood. The Dublin hospitals deliver about 20,000 babies each per annum. In a memo last year, the three masters of the hospitals said there was insufficient research to support the routine collection of cord blood.

Privately, obstetricians say they refuse to collect cord blood because of ethical objections, logistics and fear of litigation. Some private hospitals are more accommodating of parents’ requests.

Cord-blood stem cells are currently used to treat conditions such as paediatric leukaemia that would otherwise need conventional stem-cell transplants from bone marrow.

Critics say the chance of a child needing their own stem cells is one in 20,000. But scientists and doctors say the real benefit lies in the potential to treat common ailments such as heart disease. Stem cells from the umbilical cord can grow into heart, brain and liver tissue, and cord blood has been used in more than 6,000 transplants worldwide.

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