Woman with up to six months left to live settles action and gets apology from HSE over smear test audit

The HSE also said it had “mishandled” the communicating of the findings of the audits carried out on cervical smears .

“As a result we have failed the very patients who we had set out to protect, “ it stated.

“We can only express our sincere regret to you and your family for what has happened and its devastating consequences.”

The woman who cannot be named by order of the court confirmed in the witness box last week she got the bad news she is no longer in remission. Doctors have told her best prognosis is now three to six months.

The apology, which is contained in a letter to be sent to the woman, was read to the High Court today as she settled her action against the HSE and three laboratories. The settlement is without an admission of liability and came after talks between the sides following a number of days at hearing.

A number of paragraphs of the letter of apology were read to Mr Justice Kevin Cross after he was told by Counsel for the woman, Patrick Treacy SC instructed by Cian O Carroll solicitors, the case had been settled without an admission of liability.

The woman’s husband was in court for the announcement of the settlement. Mr Justice Kevin Cross congratulated the parties for achieving a settlement and wished the woman and her family well for the future.

The woman who is in her 40s was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer in 2013, just over a year after her cervical smear sample was incorrectly reported as not abnormal. She sued for damages including aggravated damages.

In evidence, she said it was like “being slapped on the face” when she heard in May last year there had been an alleged incorrect reporting of her cervical smear slide six years earlier.

She said she asked the consultant why the letter about the review of her 2012 cervical smear slide had not been forwarded to her GP.

She told the court:

“He said he had put it in my file and put it away. It felt like my world was falling in on me."

At the opening of the case last week her counsel Patrick Treacy SC said it took almost four years before the woman was told in May 2018 that a 2014 review had found the report of the 2012 test, done at a laboratory in Texas, was incorrect.

Following her cancer diagnosis in April 2013, the woman underwent a radical hysterectomy.

She suffered a recurrence of cancer in 2014 for which she had to undergo more treatment.

She suffered further setbacks and was given a poor prognosis but her hopes were raised after a CT scan last August showed cycles of chemotherapy appeared to be effective.

Mr Treacy also said the woman was "completely in the dark" until May 2018 there had been a misreading of her 2012 smear slide.

Her consultant colposcopist was not told until 2016 that a 2014 review by a laboratory of the 2012 slide had found there was a high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and atypical glandular cells which, "in plain English", amounted to a “miss”.

Her side claimed she probably had early stage cancer in February 2012 and, had that been identified and treated speedily, the outcome would have been better.

She and her husband brought proceedings against the HSE and three laboratories - Medlab Pathology Ltd and Sonic Healthcare (Ireland Ltd), both with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin, and Texas-based Clinical Pathology Laboratories Incorporated.

All of the defendants were separately represented and all denied liability. The court was told the three defendant laboratories are all subsidiaries of Sonic Healthcare, a global healthcare group headquartered in Australia.