Mother blames radiologist for death of her son

THE MOTHER of a man who died of brain damage has told a fitness- to-practise hearing that as a result of the actions of a radiologist, she had no child, her children had no brother and her husband had no son.

Barbara Haran, whose son Mark (23) died after treatment at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, asked why, if the radiologist thought her son’s MRI scan was grossly abnormal, he did not take urgent action.

Dr John Hanson (40), Malahide, Co Dublin, a consultant radiologist from Our Lady’s, has been accused of professional misconduct following the death of Mark Haran.

The nine charges against him, heard at the Irish Medical Council in Dublin, included that he failed to diagnose Mr Haran with acute intracranial pressure and or hydrocephalus – water on the brain – after examining an MRI scan, that he failed to communicate his report on the scan “adequately or at all” and he failed to furnish a written report within an adequate time.

Mr Haran, Moorechurch, Julianstown, Co Meath, died at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on April 4th, 2008, after being transferred there from Our Lady’s. The eldest of five children, he was a business graduate from DIT.

Ms Haran, an executive officer at the Department of Social Protection, told the committee her son had told her “not to make a fuss” when she insisted on seeing a senior doctor on the night of April 2nd, when he was admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes for the second time in a fortnight.

He had been discharged on March 28th with medication, a diagnosis of vertigo and assurances that his MRI brain scan was normal. However when he was readmitted with dizziness, vomiting and a severe headache, the family learned his scan had “a slight abnormality”, Ms Haran said.

They had been upset because it took four hours to find Mr Haran’s scan, which had been on Dr Hanson’s desk for a week without a written report having been filed on it.

In what was at times emotional evidence, Ms Haran said she did not believe Dr Hanson when, at a meeting following her son’s death, he said “his eyes had popped out of his head” when he saw the scan and that he had verbally reported to an intern that it was “grossly abnormal”.

His actions had not suggested he thought the scan was grossly abnormal, Ms Haran said. “As a result of that, I have no child, my children have no brother and my husband has no son,” she said.