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A TERMINALLY ILL woman who was awarded €2.5 million in the High Court today after being given incorrect smear test results has said the money will “buy her time”.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One’s Ray D’Arcy Show, Vicky Phelan, aged 43, detailed how she was incorrectly told that she was cancer free in 2011.
She said that she went for a routine smear test back in 2011 and was told her results came back normal.
However, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014. She was given just 12 months to live.
An audit was done of smear tests of women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 and Phelan’s 2011 test was rechecked. It was determined that she did, in fact, have cancer in 2011. She received the news in September.
“When my gynaecologist told me about this audit, I was still cancer free… I was very shocked and angry to think that I had cancer going back to 2011 but at the time I had other stuff going on,” Phelan said.
She said “the whole picture changed” two months later when she was diagnosed with cancer again.
Phelan said that a gynaecological expert determined that “if she had been diagnosed in 2011, there would be a 95% chance she would have been cured then”.
Settlement
Phelan today settled a High Court action against a US laboratory for €2.5 million, according to RTÉ.
€700,000 worth of the money will be placed in a trust fund for her two children, aged 12 and seven.
Phelan said that the rest of the money gives her options for treatment.
“There’s still no cure for my cancer. Unfortunately, I don’t see the day, unless a breakthrough comes in the next couple of years, where I’m going to be able to say I’m cured,” she said.
I think I’m going to have to live with this cancer for the rest of my life. So, it’s buying me extra time, extra time with my family. It’s something I’m always going to have to have treatment for and it’s expensive.
Phelan started a new clinical trial drug last month, however, it has not been determined yet whether it is effective.
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My mam passed away from cervical cancer. Shocked what has happened to this poor woman even though she went for her smear tests. I have my free smear every three years but go in between and pay for one 15 months later so I am getting tested every year and a half. You just couldn’t trust the hse with all the cancer misdiagnosis being reported lately.
@Waters Edge: For cervical cancer screenings the histology is actually outsourced to the US. The samples are sent over there, that’s why it takes 4-6 weeks to get the results. I asked my GP the last time I had mine done “why does it take so long to look at a slide on a microscope??” ,her reply was, “histology is a tedious and boring job that few people are interested in, we have a shortage of histologists as a result. So we send our smears to the US”. I was gobsmacked.
@Susannah O’Brien: Cervical screening isn’t done by histologists. It’s done by highly trained medical scientists who do add on training to be a screener.
The company in the US, Quest, won the tender because they were cheaper than our already underpaid medical scientists.
And yes we have a shortage of histology medical scientists, not histologists.
@Susannah O’Brien: “why does it take so long to look at a slide on a microscope??”
Because changes in cells can be minute. Also further tests may need to be done to confirm a diagnosis. It’s not a simple as you seem to think. Cancer doesn’t always jump out at you.
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: Fair enough, that’s just what my GP told me… Chill
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/histologist
@Susannah O’Brien: Sorry Susannah, I’m a medical scientist working in histopathology/histology and we are very very short staffed.
I can’t understand how you were gobsmacked at being told we have a shortage of qualified staff though.
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: I was gobsmacked at being told that my cervical cells wouldn’t be looked here in Ireland….
@Susannah O’Brien: ***Looked at***
@Susannah O’Brien: Yeah blame Mary Harney for that. This was inevitable.
@Susannah O’Brien: Oh and the staff shortage is due public sector paycuts and the pension levy! Staff are going to the private sector and the Middle East.
Stay positive,think ahead,don’t look back.You are brave.And live…just live…im fighting 6 years now.
What really galls me is that they dragged her through the courts, probably hoping she would give in. Costs going against you is a major concern. Courageous in more ways than one.
@Simon Peters: or hoping that she might die before the case. It’s called the Michael Noonan ploy. Try to drag out the case until the Plaintiff dies.
Shame this testing was outsourced to America during Mary Harneys reign as health minister to save money. All tests were double screened in Irish laboratories by highly trained professional cervical screeners, they were then outsourced to an American lab where all smears are only screened once. They basically lost a profession as all of these Irish screeners had to be redeployed to other areas of the laboratories and now people are dying because of missed tests. It’s an absolute disgrace.
@Laura Halfitz: You’re a medical scientist too?? Nice to meet another!
A v ery brave woman.I wish her the very very best in a search for a cure.
You can’t put a price on a life. Absolutely appalling what has happened this lady. Please God she finds a treatment that will work and age lives a long and good life to see her children grow up and enjoy doing lots of things she may want to do with the money. I’m sure she’s exploring all avenues regarding treatments here and abroad. I pray something works.
Just heartbreaking for Vicky and her family. All the money in the world can’t make up for it. You think you can trust results from the screenings. Thankfully I trusted my own body and sought additional testing. And I am so glad I did as at least now I can monitor what I feel is a ticking bloody time bomb!
You deserve great credit for what you have achieved, just take care of yourself .
People wanted certain sections of the health care system outsourced. The cervical screening program was and this was inevitable.
One person screening each slide in the US while 2 screen each slide here.
Whoever accepted the tender from Quest is responsible.
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: please be careful. There are two companies that hold the contract from the HSE. You have twice mentioned a company that has nothing to do with this case.
Anyone with conspiracy theories about gardasil and publicise this false information in a public domain should have a look at this side. That’s the real world
My heart goes out to Vicky. I wonder if she’s heard of a new treatment called Dendritic Cell infusion. It’s main stream medical cutting edge immunotherapy. Obviously there are no guarantees but at this stage it would be worth looking into!
Why in God’s name are we outsourcing laboratory tests to the us surely we can’t be that stuck to save money and we certainly have the expertise and labs here at home. Hopefully she can find some peace in knowing her little kids will have some comforts in life to ease the loss of their mam. Money doesn’t buy you life but in this case trying to save money will cost lives.
@Sean taoiseach: We have the expertise but a shortage of people going into the field of cyto screening.
The US company was cheaper than here and this is the result.
Two screeners per slide here, one in the US.
Best wishes to Vicky. Never lose hope. Stay strong.
The amount of malpractice and incompetence within the medical/scientific community has reached unacceptable levels.
Are they trying to save us or kill us???
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