A Dublin hospital has apologised before the High Court for serious errors in its care of a mother of three who was not told by the hospital for more than a year that tests on her had revealed cancerous cells in the bowel.
Tallaght hospital is also to pay estimated damages of more than €200,000 to Deirdre Conlon (58), who is now gravely ill with secondary lung and liver cancer, in settlement of her action.
In a statement read in court on behalf of the hospital, it said it had always accepted "and profoundly regrets" the serious errors that took place in the care of Ms Conlon.
"We are deeply cognisant of the consequences for Mrs Conlon. At a time like this, our thoughts must be with Mrs Conlon and her family," the statement said.
It added: "The hospital has undertaken a system analysis which identified a number of areas where action should be taken. The recommendations from the system analysis have been and continue to be implemented at the highest level with the hospital."
Ms Conlon, Balgaddy, Lucan, Co Dublin, had sued the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght, for damages as a result of the way it provided medical treatment to her between December 2003 and March 2005.
In her proceedings, Ms Conlon said she was referred in June 2003 by her GP to the hospital and had a colonoscopy procedure in December of that year.
There were tests on January 9th, 2004 but she did not receive any communication regarding test results or any outpatient appointment.
Last March she attended Tallaght hospital for an appointment with the bowel clinic when a consultant told her a biopsy taken at the time of the colonscopy in December 2003 had only now come to his attention and it revealed cancerous cells.
That same day she was admitted as an inpatient for the treatment of bowel cancer.
Ms Conlon said she was shocked and distressed when she was informed the test results revealed cancer cells. She was very distressed the information had not been passed on by her hospital, thus allowing her to go untreated for cancer.
It was claimed that the failure to pass on this information had led to a delay of 14 months in treating the spreading cancer. Ms Conlon is now undergoing chemotherapy and is very ill.
She said she was very upset and angry at the failure of the hospital to inform her of her condition in circumstances where if it had done so, she would have been in a much stronger position to treat the cancer.
"Much pain, discomfort, anxiety and loss of enjoyment of life have been occasioned and will be occasioned to Ms Conlon by reason of the injuries," it was claimed. After the settlement was agreed in court, Ms Conlon said: "I would have preferred that the settlement was better and that the apology was better. I don't think their apology was very genuine."
Her son Mark Conlon (27) claimed the hospital's apology was "not sincere".
"As a family we were very angry, it was disgraceful. You can't put a price on a person's life," he said.
"They tried to break my Mam. They know my Mam never had much money in her life, she's raised three kids on her own. To offer someone €25,000 is an absolute disgrace. They played hardball and even today couldn't even face my Mam.
"That wasn't an apology, it's disgraceful," he added. "We're not happy but that's life."
Ms Conlon's youngest child, Michelle (19) said: "My Mam has been through a lot over the past couple of years. The medical system in Ireland is very poor. It just goes to show that they don't really listen to people. They could have faced us and said, 'it was our fault'."
Charlotte Conlon (26) said her mother had previously sought to settle the case. "We shouldn't have had to come again today, she's been through enough."