Woman with terminal cancer settles High Court case over smear slide misreporting

A 40-year-old woman with terminal cancer has settled her High Court action over the misreporting of her smear slide 18 years ago.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) and a hospital apologised to the mother-of-three for the “devastating consequences” for her.

On the second day of the hearing, on Friday, Mr Justice Paul Coffey was told the case had been settled and could be struck out. The case came before the court for the assessment of damages only, as liability was admitted in the case.

The apology acknowledged that the reporting of her smear sample taken on November 3rd, 2004, “fell below a reasonable standard”.

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The HSE and St Luke’s Hospital, Rathgar, Dublin, which examined the 2004 slide, apologised to the woman, who cannot be named by order of the court.

The letter was signed by the general manager of St Luke’s Radiation Oncology Network, Jacqueline Robinson.

It added: “I unreservedly apologise to you for what happened and for its devastating consequences. I do not underestimate how difficult this has been for you and your family. I hope that you will accept this apology which is made with sincere regret.”

At the opening of the case on Thursday, the woman’s counsel, Jeremy Maher SC, said the woman’s pre-cancer should have been detected in 2004 and, if it had, it would have been excised and “she would have been cured”.

Six years later in 2010, counsel said, the woman was screened again and this was reported back as abnormal and she was referred for a number of procedures. She was diagnosed as suffering from micro-invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Further smear samples were clear until the summer of 2015 when metastatic cervical cancer was diagnosed.

Counsel said a significant factor was that the woman was five weeks pregnant at the time. He said it was a much-desired pregnancy and there were two serious concerns regarding her life and her pregnancy.

The hospital involved had to take legal advice on the matter and the decision on treatment was not taken lightly, he said.

Counsel said the medical advice was the only way to save her life was to have chemotherapy, radiotherapy and brachytherapy and there was a loss of the pregnancy.