Woman wrongly diagnosed, husband tells hearing

JOHN FALLON in Galway

A MEDICAL Council hearing yesterday was told by a father of two young children that his wife had died after what was supposed to be a straightforward hospital procedure.

Martin O’Connor, from Claregalway, Co Galway, told the Medical Council’s fitness to practise committee how his wife Saundra (39) had been misdiagnosed. Ms O’Connor was misdiagnosed when she went for the routine procedure and spent almost three years in a vegetative state before she died in February 2008.

Dr Andrea Hermann, a consultant gynaecologist who performed the simple laparoscopy procedure at the Galway Clinic in 2005, has admitted to the committee that her care of the woman amounted to professional misconduct.

The committee’s hearing resumed in Galway yesterday on the circumstances surrounding Ms O’Connor’s death.

The hearing heard yesterday that Dr Hermann had initially wrongly diagnosed Ms O’Connor as suffering from polycystic ovarian syndrome when she in fact had a cyst on one of her ovaries.

Eoin McCullough SC, for the Medical Council, said the complaints against Dr Hermann were that she had failed to conduct appropriate investigations before carrying out a laparoscopy; failed to provide conservative management of the cyst; failed to provide for early administration of antibiotics; failed to appreciate the gravity of the patient’s condition; and failed to provide appropriate standards of clinical judgment.

Mr McCullough said Dr Hermann had accepted that these amounted to professional misconduct.

In a second case against Dr Hermann, a young teacher told of undergoing an abdominal hysterectomy without the presence of critical blood products to deal with her haemophilia condition.

The 39-year-old mother of two, who does not wish to be identified, said she suffered from Factor 11 deficiency, a rare bleeding disease. Mr McCullough said that in their assessment of Dr Hermann’s performance with this patient, the peer review group had wondered why such a high-risk surgery was performed. The absence of Factor 11 concentrate or a substitute in the operating theatre and the absence of expert supervision was also queried.

The hearing continues today.