No abnormality on Ruth Morrissey’s smear slide, court told

A cytotechnologist who recently blind tested a smear slide of a Limerick woman which was sent to a US laboratory in 2012 has told the High Court she did not find anything that looked like an abnormality.

Coleen Stowe, president of the Wisconsin Society of Cytology, was giving evidence on behalf of the US laboratory MedLab in the continuing action by Ruth Morrissey, who is terminally ill with cervical cancer.

Ms Morrissey has sued over the alleged misreading of her smear slides in 2009 and 2012 taken under the CervicalCheck screening programme. Her case is against the HSE, Medlab and another US laboratory Quest Diagnostics.

Ms Morrissey was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, which recurred last year. The court has been told the mother of one has a maximum of two years to live.

On Thursday, Ms Stowe told the court she received a box of 12 slides which she knew came from an Irish law firm but she did not know which side of the case they represented.

Referring to Ruth Morrissey’s slide, she found it was negative for lesions or malignancy and said she recorded it as negative. She also said she found the slide to be adequate.

Fee

Cross examined by Patrick Treacy SC, for Ms Morrissey, Ms Stowe said she was paid a fee for the blind testing but would rather not say how much.

Ms Morrissey and her husband Paul Morrissey of Kylemore, Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick have sued the HSE; Quet Diagnostics Ireland Ltd with offices at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin; and Medlab Pathology Ltd, with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18.

It is claimed there was failure to correctly report and diagnose and alleged misinterpretation of her smear samples taken in 2009 and 2012. It is alleged a situation developed where Ms Morrissey’s cancer spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2014.

It is further claimed a review of the 2009 and 2012 smears took place in 2014 and 2015 with the results sent to Ms Morrissey’s treating gynaecologist in 2016 but Ms Morrissey was not told until May 2018 of those review results which showed her smears were reported incorrectly.

Had Ms Morrissey been told the results of the smear test audits in late 2014 or early 2015, she would have insisted on an MRI and other scans, it is also claimed. The HSE has admitted it owed a duty of care to Ms Morrissey but not to her husband. The laboratories deny all claims.

The case continues on Friday before Mr Justice Kevin Cross.