Courts

Settlement of €1.9m for woman who claimed she was misdiagnosed with cancer

Aoife O’Donovan was 17 when she received a lymphoma cancer diagnosis and underwent chemotherapy

Aoife O'Donovan outside the High Court where she settled her action over a cancer misdiagnosis. Photograph: Collins Courts

Wed Dec 13 2023 - 16:15

A woman who claimed she was misdiagnosed with cancer and endured highly toxic chemotherapy treatment as a teenager has settled a High Court action for €1.9 million.

Aoife O’Donovan was 17 years of age when she received the lymphoma cancer diagnosis after she was admitted to the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, with abdominal pain.

Her senior counsel, Dr John O’Mahony, with Cian O’Mahony BL, told the High Court that the girl’s condition was investigated and it was their case that she was in October 2005 misdiagnosed with T Cell Lymphoma cancer when, in fact, she had a benign self-limiting condition called Kikuchis Disease.

Dr O’Mahony said the two diagnoses were at “opposite ends of the spectrum”.

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It was claimed that Ms O’Donovan, who is now aged 35, was subjected to severe, multiple and unnecessary tests, scans, x-rays, biopsies and treatment, including chemotherapy, was subjected to considerable anxiety, upset, distress and inconvenience. She was advised in December 2006 that she never had the cancer but had an unrelated virus.

She had six courses of chemotherapy treatment between November 2005 and April 2006. In all, she spent seven months in hospital and at one stage had to take 32 tablets a day. Counsel said Ms O’Donovan could not sit her Leaving Certificate and her career prospects were compromised.

Ms O’Donovan, from Airport Road, Cork city, on Wednesday settled a High Court action against consultant histopathologist, Eoin O’Murchu, who practises at the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork city. The settlement is without an admission of liability but an apology from Mr O’Murchu was read to the court.

In the apology, Mr O’Murchu conveyed his “sincere and heartfelt apologies” over Ms O’Donovan’s pathology diagnosis of October 28th, 2005.

“I regret the significant injuries that you have suffered and the distress caused over many years. I offer my deepest sympathy to you,” he said.

In the proceedings, it was claimed that Mr O’Murchu failed to have any regard to the fact that the histological features are typical of Kikuchis Disease.

The claims were denied.

Noting the settlement, Mr Justice Paul Coffey said it was a very sad case and he told Ms O’Donovan, who was in court with her family, that he was delighted that the matter had been resolved.

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