Woman, 44, with terminal cervical cancer launches action for damages over alleged diagnosis delay
A 44- year old woman who claims she suffered a delay in a cervical cancer diagnosis and is now terminally ill has launched a High Court action for damages.
The woman, who last year was given two years to live, is also seeking aggravated damages in relation to an alleged failure to inform her of an audit review of her CervicalCheck smear test for five years.
Her Counsel Diarmuid O Donovan told the Court she is seeking aggravated damages for the “egregious delay in disclosure”.
It is their case he said, “ the duty of candour and open disclosure was wholly trampled upon in this case."
Today, the woman told the High Court nobody told her until May last year of the audit review in 2013 of her smear test taken under the CervicalCheck screening programme in 2012.
“I was taken into a side room and told my smear slide had been incorrectly read. The consultant said he found out in 2016.
"He said he was sorry but why hold that information without telling me. Nobody told me, I felt angry, I should have been told,” she said.
The woman down in tears as she told of the recurrence of her cancer which is inoperable.
“My future is not going to be very long. I don’t plan for anything in the future,” she said.
The woman cannot be identified by order of the court.
She has sued the HSE and US laboratory MedLab with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Sandyford, Dublin.
The woman had a smear test in March 2012 and the report was borderline abnormal cells.
It is claimed the reporting of the smear test was inaccurate and allegedly failed to reveal the potential for possible cancer cells.
She had a repeat smear test, in September 2012 which was reported as more significant activity and she was referred to a consultant, who advised a full hysterectomy.
After the operation, she attended for checks, but in February 2017 she was advised she had recurrent advanced cervical cancer and palliative chemotherapy was recommended.
The woman was told the average survival time was 18 to 24 months with treatment.
The delay in diagnosing the woman's cancer it is claimed has resulted in progression of the lesion to an invasive carcinoma with adverse features by December 2012.
It is further claimed there was an alleged failure to arrange appropriate scanning when the woman presented with bleeding in August 2013 and, December 2015.
At the outset of the case yesterday Mr Justice Barr was told by MedLab that the laboratory admitted a breach of duty in relation to the reading of the woman's slide and was contesting the case in relation to causation.
The HSE has accepted there was a breach of duty in relation to the failure to communicate the results of the internal review of her 2012 smear slide.
Opening the case, Mr O’Donovan SC said the woman’s life has been cut short and she faces a bleak future.
He said it was their case that while the woman was receiving follow up care in the hands of the HSE, there was an opportunity to be aware the tumor was growing and steps could have been taken to treat it with a curative intent.
The woman he said made complaints such as bleeding in 2013 and in 2015 which it is claimed should have aroused suspicions of the a recurrence of the disease. Counsel said there were "lost opportunities for diagnosis of the tumour."
Experts on their side, Counsel said would say the recurrent tumour should have been identified sixteen months earlier around December 2015 when it would have been smaller and probably operable.
The case before Mr Justice Anthony Barr continues on Tuesday.
