A man whose wife is terminally ill with cancer, and who has sued over alleged misinterpretation of her CervicalCheck smear test nine years ago, has told the High Court his family feel “let down”.
After the CervicalCheck controversy broke last year, he thought they would get help and be “looked after”, the man said. “We got no contact. We are very disappointed and let down. Anything we had to do, we had to do ourselves. We got hope, but nothing came of it.”
He added: “It was very hard to take, and I felt did anyone care.”
The man broke down while saying he does not know what future his family has.
“I am scared, I am worried about the children and will I be able to look after them,” he said. His beautiful wife, and mother of his two children, had to shave off her hair as she underwent six cycles of chemotherapy after they were told her cancer was inoperable, he said.
“The children wanted to know why was her hair gone and we told them Mammy got medicine and had to have her hair off.”
The couple, who cannot be identified by court order, have sued the HSE; Sonic Healthcare (Ireland) Ltd and Medlab Pathology Ltd, both with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin; and US laboratory Clinical Pathology Laboratories Incorporated (CPL) of Austin, Texas. The CPL laboratory tested her smear slide in 2010 and reported it as negative.
First diagnosis
In evidence on Wednesday, the man said his wife’s cervical cancer was first diagnosed just before Christmas 2015 and they were devastated when it returned two years later and last year when they were told the cancer was inoperable.
“We were devastated, we could not believe it. It was not going away and it was very hard to hear,” he said.
The man said he was heartbroken and scared. They were awaiting the outcome of a further scan carried out earlier this week, he said.
In their action, the couple claim the defendants owed the woman a duty of care in the provision of the cervical screening programme and all services associated with it. The court has heard that, on September 17th, 2010, the woman underwent a cervical smear test as part of the national cervical screening programme. Her sample was sent for review and a laboratory report showed the sample was satisfactory for assessment and there was no evidence of the presence of abnormal tissue.
It is claimed there was failure to correctly report and diagnose a misinterpretation of the woman’s smear slide taken in 2010.
Her cancer, it is alleged, was allowed to develop and spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December 2015.The claims are denied.
The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues on Thursday.