A 37-year-old Co Louth woman broke down when she told the High Court yesterday that she had been devastated when informed by gynaecologist Dr Michael Neary that he had removed her womb at the age of 27 following the birth of her son in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
Mrs Alison Gough, now aged 38, of Market House Lane, Ardee, has sued Dr Neary, of Fair Street, Drogheda, and the hospital for alleged negligence. The doctor and hospital claim that the action is statute-barred and deny Mrs Gough's claims.
Mrs Gough continuously broke down as she gave evidence. She saw Dr Neary for the first time in hospital on October 26th, 1992. She had been overdue and during the day there had not been much progress with the labour. She heard Dr Neary say: "She will have to have a 'C' section." She signed a document.
When she awoke, a nurse told her that her baby boy, Damien, was grand. The child was not in the room with her. She was in a lot of pain. Dr Neary saw her on October 28th. He walked by her bed and said "Hello". She told him she could not sleep because she was upset and he had replied: "If you did not sleep, how do you think I slept?"
On the following day she was in a ward and saw her son for the first time. When Dr Neary visited, she said: "If I was to have any more \, could it be possible to have a section?" He had replied: "What do you mean 'more'? I had to do a hysterectomy."
She could not believe what he had told her and she broke down. He had then said: "I saved your life."
Mrs Gough said Dr Neary said to her that he could have sent her son home without a mammy, but that he had had saved her life, and she had lost so much blood he had never seen anything like it. He had said nothing else and had left. "I was devastated," said Mrs Gough.
She saw him on one other visit six weeks later, when she wanted to know what she had done wrong and if he could explain what had happened. She had not been sleeping and could not come to terms with the outcome. "He said that if he told me what happened that night I would never sleep again. He told me to go home and get on with my life. He gave me no information. I could not believe anyone would let me out of hospital and didn't care."
She said no one gave her counselling. One nurse had given her a book and had told her not to let "the rest see it."
She said she went back to work in June 1993 as a domestic in St Brigid's psychiatric hospital, Ardee. "I was just there in body. I could not think for myself. I got no help and thought that these things happen and that I should be able to cope. I didn't feel like a woman. I didn't feel anything at all . . . I felt very guilty that I hadn't asked questions."
Mrs Gough, who was continually crying throughout her evidence (the court was adjourned for a short time to let her recover), said in reply to Mr Justice Johnson that she had been tearful in hospital and agreed that she had been let out without any suggestion as to what she might do to recover. No one had said that it was not her fault.
Mr James Nugent SC, for Mrs Gough, said the claim was that the professional services rendered to Mrs Gough fell below acceptable medical standards. The hysterectomy was a procedure of last resort in cases where a woman was in a life-threatening situation.
The explanation given in the hospital notes was that Mrs Gough had a loss of 1,500/1,700 millilitres of blood and was still bleeding. Dr Neary had written to her GP and had stated that the need for the hysterectomy was that the patient had a continuous massive bleeding. "The fact is that was not the case," said Mr Nugent. "Mrs Gough had not suffered a haemorrhage of the nature that would require such a drastic procedure to be taken and the \ records clearly establish that fact. There were 10 distinct indications that what Dr Neary did was well short of acceptable medical standards."
Mr Nugent said that to suggest that Mrs Gough was shattered when told that her womb had been removed would be an understatement. She had been devastated and had spent hours in the hospital crying. For the first two years of her son's life she had felt disconnected and felt no joy.
In 1998, Dr Neary's problems became public knowledge. The media was full of reports that he had stopped work in hospital and that there were a very significant number of women in the same boat as Mrs Gough. Her solicitor had obtained the hospital notes and the full, awful truth had emerged. She had not really been able to cope with the situation.
The hearing continues today.