The family of a 30-year-old woman who died of cancer eight years ago has secured €325,000 in settlement of their High Court action regarding the handling of smear tests carried out on the woman.
The court was told yesterday that three smear tests were carried out on Ms Anne Broderick, known as Lulu, between 1989 and 1993 in the UK and Ireland but she was not told of abnormalities or they were not detected.
Ms Broderick, from Shankill, Co Dublin, died in 1998 when her daughter was aged five years. Her family had sued the Coombe Hospital, Dublin, and Mount Vernon Hospital in Middlesex, England, for damages for mental distress arising from the circumstances of Ms Broderick's death.
Mr Justice Richard Johnson yesterday approved settlement of the action in the amount of €325,000.
The judge heard that, in November 1989, Ms Broderick had attended another UK hospital for a cervical smear test and the results were sent to her GP in London.
The advice from the hospital to her GP was that a follow-up examination was necessary and that a repeat smear test should be carried out in six months.
The GP had informed Ms Broderick the test was normal and accordingly no follow-up test was carried out.
Ms Broderick had another smear test which was carried out in Mount Vernon Hospital in the UK on February 13th, 1992 and which failed to detect any abnormality.
On January 15th, 1993 Ms Broderick gave birth to her daughter at the Coombe Hospital in Dublin and was referred for a further cervical smear test. This test was carried out in the Coombe on March 4th, 1993.
It was claimed that the test and the investigation and interpretation of the results by the Coombe Hospital failed to identify any abnormality.
In March 1994, Ms Broderick was referred by a doctor in the UK to the Mount Vernon hospital and discharged in April without any diagnosis of her condition or the cause of her bleeding.
On May 6th, 1994 Ms Broderick underwent a biopsy of her cervix in the Coombe Hospital which showed the presence of cervical carcinoma.
A large tumour was confirmed by investigations under general anaesthetic on May 25th, 1994 and, two days later Ms Broderick had a hysterectomy. She died four years later on April 21st 1998.
It was claimed that the Coombe Hospital was negligent regarding carrying out an assessment of and reporting on a smear that was inadequate and unreliable in failing to request a repeat smear.
It was claimed that Mount Vernon Hospital was negligent in relation to the February 13th, 1992 test for failing to have regard to the presence of numerous severely dysaryotic cells in the smear and misinterpreting the smear.
The court heard Anne Broderick was employed by Roches Stores up to June 1997, that she was a hard working and industrious person and that her death had created a huge emotional loss for the members of her family.
Outside the court, Ms Broderick's husband, Kieran, said he did not feel victorious about the settlement.
"No award of money can replace a mother for a child, a wife for a husband," he said.
He and Lulu had been childhood sweethearts, he added.
His wife had begun the court proceedings initially but had died just days before a court settlement.
However, she had made provisions in her will for her family to continue the action.