A CANCER specialist told a jury yesterday that there was no way laser treatment used on a terminally ill 14-year-old boy would have made any difference to the boy’s cancer. At Ennis Circuit Court, Prof Frank Sullivan said photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment is inappropriate and completely ineffective for deep-seated cancers.
The jury in the trial of Paschal Carmody has already heard that Co Wexford boy Conor O’Sullivan underwent PDT treatment at the East Clinic in Killaloe in July 2002. The boy was given six months to live in May 2002 and died in November that year. His mother, Christina, has already told the jury that Mr Carmody told Conor that he would cure his cancer or at worst keep him alive. Mr Carmody denies he said this.
Mr Carmody (60), Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, Co Clare, denies 25 separate charges of obtaining €80,172 from six terminally ill cancer patients and their families by deception between September 2001 and October 2002.
In court yesterday Prof Sullivan of Galway University Hospital said he could not see how PDT treatment would be effective in the cases of either the late JJ Gallagher or the late John Sheridan.