A disgraced obstetrician who was struck off the medical register for unnecessarily removing the wombs of pregnant women, performed unnecessary surgery on 39 more women, a report claimed today.
The report said 39 female patients should be compensated for the trauma they suffered at the hands of Michael Neary at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth.
An investigation previously found Mr Neary carried out 129 hysterectomies over a 25-year period.
In the new study, British experts Professor Roger Clements and Professor Richard Porter examined a further 62 women who complained about the treatment they received at the hands of Dr Neary.
They said 39 had valid cases for compensation.
The UK-based specialists said the most common unnecessary procedure was the removal of one or both ovaries - which the authors describe as female castration.
A number women suffering a condition called endometriosis were also coerced into having their ovaries (and sometimes their uterus) removed, the report said, while on other occasions Dr Neary removed one or both ovaries for benign disease such as simple cysts that required only limited surgery.
The experts said they were repeatedly told by these women that Dr Neary told them post-operatively that he had saved their lives.
"Immediate surgical complications were not a feature here," the report concluded.
A matron first expressed concerns over the numbers of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out by Dr Neary in 1978/79, but they were ignored.
An investigation in to his practices was launched by the Government in 2004.
The Lourdes Hospital Inquiry found a total of 188 peripartum hysterectomies were carried out at Drogheda in the 25-year period from 1974 to 1998, of which 129 were attributed to Dr Neary.
The rate of Caesarean hysterectomies at the hospital was one for every 37 Caesarean sections, compared to one in every 300 at other facilities.
Patient Focus, a support group for women affected, said up to 70 more women are awaiting medical reports.
"The key bit around this report is that it now raises serious questions about Neary's gynaecological practices," said spokesman Jim Reilly.
"Up to now the focus was on his obstetrics practice on the time of childbirth. Now its on much wider than that."
Mr Reilly said that almost a decade after news of the scandal emerged, there still remains to be resolved issues surrounding a process of redress and compensation relating to a small number of damaged former patients of Dr Neary who have strong medical reports indicating the inappropriate nature of their care.
The group today held talks with Minister for Health Mary Harney to demand compensation for up to 20 damaged patients who were not covered under the terms of the Lourdes Hospital Redress Scheme.
The Government was also called on to extend the initiative to cover all former patients who had inappropriate procedures/adverse outcomes in the hospital's maternity unit.
"We believe that the extension of the redress scheme to cover all damaged former patients to be the most appropriate gesture for the State to make in an effort to close this unfortunate chapter in Irish Medicine," Mr Reilly said.
A spokeswoman for Ms Harney said the discussions had been positive, adding the Minister will have further talks with the Attorney General.
PA