Neary victims call for compensation scheme
Victims of a discredited doctor who needlessly removed scores of women’s wombs have called on the Government to set up a compensation scheme.
Dr Michael Neary, a former consultant obstetrician at Our Lady’s Hospital in Drogheda, carried out 129 hysterectomies between 1974 and 1998 – 20 times the national average.
A Government inquiry into the scandal, chaired by Judge Maureen Harding Clark, is expected to be published tomorrow.
Dr Neary was struck off the medical register in 2003 after he was found guilty of professional misconduct over the unnecessary removal of the wombs of 10 women patients at the Co Louth hospital.
According to media leaks, the inquiry found that a total of 44 patient files went missing and that the maternity theatre register was doctored in a cover-up bid.
Patient Focus, which represents victims of Dr Neary has called on the Government to set up a redress board, similar to that in place for survivors of child abuse in state institutions.
Spokesperson Fidelma Geraghty said: “Many of the women don’t have the option of going through the courts process so that I do think that something should be set up.
“It is an extremely emotional time that everybody has gone through and to ask people to go through the courts and be battered by the courts system.
“The Government should say: ’The women have been through enough. Let’s do a little bit for them’ and set up a redress board so at least they can feel that some sort of justice was done for them.”
Ms Geraghty, who had her womb removed after the birth of her third child in 1997, went looking for her hospital files after a Late Late Show programme on the issue, but discovered most had gone missing.
Patient Focus has also called for stricter procedures in all maternity hospitals so the scandal is not allowed to happen again. “Other women shouldn’t be allowed to suffer in the same way,” she added.
The report also says that probably more than one person working within the hospital was involved in a deliberate culling of records.
Someone had also made “alarming alterations” to the maternity theatre’s register.
Ms Geraghty said of her hysterectomy: “At the time my husband and I were led to believe that it was to save my life and because I had no problems in my dealings with Dr Neary. I had no reason not to believe him.
“So lying on a hospital table being told that if this isn’t carried out you will die, you don’t question it.”
Ms Geraghty said it was difficult to believe Dr Neary was allowed to perform 20 times the national average of peripartum hysterectomies (performed within six weeks of birth) at Our Lady’s Hospital.
“It’s absolutely incredible. It’s hard to believe but it’s just confirming what we’ve already known.
“The fact that it went on for so long and so many people were involved in it - the midwives, the nurses, anaesthetist, the pathologist – all must have seen the same thing coming back time and time again and nobody questioned what was going on or tried to put a stop to it, is really the killer in the whole situation.
“The scary thing to think about is the culture in the hospital was such that even if you did raise concerns, nothing was followed through on,” she told RTÉ Radio.
The report also claims that Dr Neary had an unusual intolerance of bleeding, which reached almost phobic proportions.
“It seems strange for somebody who is a qualified obstetrician and gynaecologist. It just beggars belief,” said Ms Geraghty.
Patient Focus also said it was shocked that the inquiry had been leaked to The Sunday Tribune newspaper before its official publication.
| Related Stories: |
|
