Minister sympathises with family of hep C victim

The Minister for Health has expressed his condolences to the family of Ms Sylvia O'Leary, who was embroiled in a dispute with Mr Martin about hepatitis C compensation before Christmas and who died in London on Thursday night.

Ms O'Leary (32), of Ballincollig, Co Cork, was taken off a life-support machine on Thursday after showing no signs of recovering from a coma into which she fell on December 21st.

She had been flown to King's College Hospital for what would have been her third liver transplant but was taken off the organ waiting list earlier this week after failing to regain consciousness.

Members of her family expressed disquiet last night that Ms O'Leary died without the comfort of knowing her family would be taken care of through a compensation scheme only finalised with the Government on Christmas Eve.

After she lost consciousness, the family, through her solicitor, accused the Minister of "gambling on her not surviving so that you can attempt to resile" from a €1 million compensation deal agreed on December 2nd.

Mr Martin, who denied the accusations at the time, declined to comment yesterday other than extending his sympathy to Ms O'Leary's family and friends.

The Department revealed, however, that the Minister held a scheduled meeting with Ms O'Leary's lawyers early yesterday at which, it is understood, aspects of the deal were clarified. It is believed news of Ms O'Leary's death only reached Mr Martin during the course of that meeting.

Ms O'Leary's husband, Des, was by her bedside when she died. Their two children, Emma (13) and Dylan (6), remained in Cork where they were comforted by members of their extended family.

Ms Eileen O'Leary, her sister- in-law, said there remained some ill-feeling about the manner in which they were forced to go public over the case. However, she said, "everyone's too upset to think about that at the moment".

The body is not expected to be flown home until tomorrow at the earliest.

Ms O'Leary was infected with hepatitis C through contaminated blood received during a liver transplant at King's College in 1991.

The State accepted responsibility as she had been treated under its care. Prior to the establishment of liver transplant facilities at the Mater Hospital, Dublin, in 1995, all such patients were referred overseas.

Her case was not unique in this regard and at least three other people infected with hepatitis C through transplants overseas have been compensated by the State.

Ms O'Leary's case was complicated, however, by the fact that she was not informed of her infection until after the closing date for applications to the hepatitis C compensation tribunal.

The O'Learys have claimed she may have been infected separately through a contaminated product received in treatment in the Republic, but this has proved impossible to establish due to inadequate record-keeping by Irish healthcare agencies.

The family has likened the case to that of Brigid McCole, the Donegal woman who died in October 1996 a day after a settlement was reached in her legal action over hepatitis C infection. However, Mr Martin has rejected the validity of such a comparison.

Before Christmas, he also rejected the allegation that he had "deliberately decided to allow Ms O'Leary to die without giving her the comfort of knowing that her family will be provided for after her death".