A mother of two who is terminally ill with cancer and who sued in relation to the alleged misinterpretation of her CervicalCheck smear slide today settled her case for €2.5million.
Earlier the couple’s two young children were joined to the proceedings and Mr Justice Cross heard the damages award is to couple and their children. Her husband in his evidence to the court said after the CervicalCheck controversy broke last year, he thought they would get help and be "looked after". The court heard the woman who had treatment in 2015 was devastated when the cancer returned two years later and the “Rubicon moment” her counsel said was when she was told in September last year her cancer was inoperable.
Her case was that had she undergone a procedure to excise the pre-cancerous lesion there was a 95 per cent chance of being cured and a less than one per cent chance of the cancer developing, he said. It was claimed there was an alleged failure to correctly report and diagnose and there was an alleged misinterpretation of the woman’s smear slide taken in 2010 and that her cancer was allowed to develop and spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in December 2015.The claims were denied.The woman said she didn’t think that she would have to take this legal road just travelled , but she said she was left with no choice.