Cancer expert tells court follow-up on Ruth Morrissey after her first bout of cervical cancer was 'unthorough'

If she had scans after the surgery in August 2014, Professor Jones said a scan in July 2016 would have detected the recurrence.

Asked by Ruth Morrissey's Counsel Jeremy Maher SC if in 2016, depending on the location of the cancer, was there a probability of a cure, Prof. Jones replied "yes".

“This poor lady is not typical of those who have belts and braces thrown at the cancer,’ he told Mr Justice Kevin Cross.

“The window of opportunity was missed. The cancer should have been found In February 2017 but also earlier. By February 2017 it would be so large, it would not be missed,’ he said about the pelvic wall cancer which was diagnosed in Ms Morrissey in February last year when the tumour was found to be 7cm in diameter.

Professor Bleddyn Jones, a Professor of Clinical Radiation Biology at Oxford University and an expert in gynaecological cancer management was giving evidence in the continuing action by terminally ill Ruth Morrissey who has sued over the alleged misreading of her smear slides in 2009 and 2012 by two different US laboratories and which were taken under the

CervicalCheck screening programme.

She has also claimed if she had been told the results of smear test audits in late 2014 or early 2016 she would have insisted on an MRI and other scans.

Ruth Morrissey was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 which recurred last year and the court has already heard the mother of one has a maximum of two years to live.

A recurrence of Ms Morrisey's cancer of her pelvic wall cancer was diagnosed in February 2018.

Prof. Jones told the court the cancer cells were probably in Ms Morrissey’s pelvic wall before the 2014 operation. He said the follow-up after Ms Morrissey’s 2014 operation was “unthorough.”

He told Jeremy Maher SC she developed a larger mass “without it being detected which should never be the case."

Asked by Mr Maher if a scan would have detected the recurrence, he said it would become visible.

When Ruth Morrissey, he said, had the surgery, a trachelectomy in 2014, he said the tumour was so large there would be about 15% risk of recurrence and he would be extremely concerned for that patient not to have follow-up.

He said if a tumour is larger than. 2.5cm you are obliged to offer radiation.

He said you treat a patient as a relative and if Ruth Morrissey was your sister or your daughter you would do everything possible when there was a 15% risk of recurrence.

A 15% risk of recurrence, he said, would be sufficient to justify MRI scanning.

Asked by Mr Maher in relation to February 2017, Prof. Jones said if the larger tumour was treated Ms Morrissey could have a long disease-free interval but the disease had gone into the bone and her pain and suffering could have been totally prevented by radiation.

Ruth Morrissey and her husband Paul Morrissey of Kylemore, Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick, have sued the HSE and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Ireland Ltd with offices at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin along with Medlab Pathology Ltd with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18.

It is claimed there was an alleged failure to correctly report and diagnose and there was an alleged misinterpretation of her smear samples taken in 2009 and 2012. A situation, it is claimed, allegedly developed where Ms Morrissey’s cancer spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2014.

It is further claimed a review of the 2009 and 2012 smears took place in 2014 and 2015 with the results sent to Ms Morrissey's treating gynaecologist in 2016, but she was not told until May 2018 of those review results which showed her smears were reported incorrectly.

The HSE, the court has already heard, admitted it owed a duty of care to Ms Morrissey. The laboratories deny all claims.

The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues on Tuesday.