THERE WERE renewed calls yesterday for the inclusion of an additional 35 women damaged by former Drogheda obstetrician Michael Neary in a redress scheme set up to compensate his victims.
The scheme, which is drawing to a close, does not cover women who were over 40 years of age when Mr Neary, who was found guilty of professional misconduct and struck off in 2003, operated on them.
He was struck off for unnecessarily removing patients’ wombs and it emerged later that he had also removed women’s ovaries unnecessarily.
Mother-of-two Marie Reaburn from Stormanstown, Ardee, Co Louth, was operated on by Mr Neary 16 years ago, three days after her 40th birthday. He said he had to remove her womb as she had a large fibroid. She agreed to the operation as long as he didn’t remove her ovaries as well.
A day after the surgery he told her he had to remove her ovaries too, bringing on an early menopause, as she had endometriosis. She was devastated.
Only in July last year, when her medical notes were reviewed by an independent obstetrician, did she learn the removal of her ovaries had been unnecessary as she did not have endometriosis.
She said the Dublin-based independent obstetrician also told her that her womb could have been saved. She got “an awful shock”. Ms Reaburn appealed yesterday to Minister for Health Mary Harney to include women like her, whose lives had been “turned upside down”, in the redress scheme.
“It’s not going to undo the pain and suffering but at least it’s an acknowledgement that we are not being discriminated against because that’s just what it feels like,” she said.
“We were also wronged by this man and it would be an admission of that if we got redress,” she added.
When the Neary redress scheme was announced in April 2007 it was estimated that the €45 million compensation fund would benefit about 172 women.
A spokesman for the Department of Health could not say yesterday if it would be extended to cover another 35 women. But he said Ms Harney had met Patient Focus, the group representing the women, to discuss their request.
“The Minister has since consulted with Judge Maureen Harding Clark and with the State Claims Agency and the issue remains under consideration,” he said.
The damage done to women treated by Mr Neary has been raised again by the broadcasting of Whistleblower, a dramatisation on RTÉ 1 television.
Sheila O’Connor of Patient Focus said Mr Neary, who is now living out his retirement in Co Louth, has never showed he had any insight into what he did or showed any sympathy for his damaged patients.