Woman dies from cancer after receiving ‘all-clear’ diagnosis

A woman that was given the ‘all-clear’ from cancer in April 2007 was diagnosed as having terminal cancer four months later and died last April.
On 25 April 2008 Ann Moriarty, aged 53, died in Cahercalla Community Hospital, Ennis, of metastatic breast cancer. However the previous summer, her husband claims, she had been the victim of a number of incidences of serious misdiagnoses and administrative errors in Ennis General Hospital.

These misdiagnoses and other significant failings have been confirmed in two unpublished Health Service Executive internal reports into her treatment. The reports say that two X-rays had been misread and that highly abnormal blood test results showing elevated tumour markers had been filed in Ann Moriarty’s notes without ever being acted upon by doctors.
Irish Medical Times has seen copies of the reports which confirm the fact that Ms. Moriarty was discharged from the Mid-Western Regional Hospital on August 11, 2007 with a prescription for Motillium tablets. The medical team there referred her for surgical opinion, but the surgical out-patient appointment was not given to her.
She attended the Galway Clinic a few days later where her terminal diagnosis was discovered.
Ann Moriarty developed breast cancer in April 2005 following which she received successful treatment in St James’s Hospital, Dublin. She underwent a single mastectomy and a short course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She and her family (husband Karl Henry and her 12-year-old son) moved to Ennis in 2006. She continued to attend St James’ for her six-monthly follow-up checks. In all cases, up to and including April 2007, the family were relieved to be told that she continued to be free of any recurrence of her cancer.
In April 2007 she was declared to be free of any recurrence of her cancer during a regular check-up in St James’s Hospital, Dublin. She was then diagnosed as terminally ill in August 2007 – which, of course, calls into question the accuracy and thoroughness of the check-up she received at St James’ just a few months earlier.
On June 11, 2007 she was admitted to Ennis General Hospital with a fever. She had a chest x-ray and, after an incorrect ‘all-clear’, was discharged four days later. She then went on a holiday with her family to the Canary Islands, unaware that of her condition.
However, later that summer, she became concerned about her health. On August 11 she had further extensive tests at Ennis General Hospital including another x-ray which was declared, once again to be ‘fine’.
Again she was discharged, this time against the specific advice of the nursing staff that she be admitted. According to the HSE report the Assistant Director of Nursing was made aware of the nurses’ concerns and was later surprised to find that Ms. Moriarty had been sent home
The following day the family travelled up to the Galway Clinic for a second opinion. Ms Moriarty was examined over a period of approx 30 mins in the emergency room on August 14. Following that examination the decision was made to admit her immediately. On Thursday Aug 16 the consultant in Galway advised Ms Moriarty’s husband Karl that not only had she suffered a recurrence of her breast cancer, but that it had spread to a number of other areas in her body and was extremely serious.
Ann Moriarty received palliative care for six months before succumbing to her illness on April 25 2008.
Her husband Karl Henry is now calling for an agreed and independent review “to include all relevant files, X-rays and mammograms taken at the hospital. There also needs to be an independent investigation into the care that Ann received at St James’ Hospital, Dublin and that hospital’s subsequent and very belated claim to have lost a crucial radiological record.”
He is also calling for a personal meeting with the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to ask her ‘face to face’ to order an independent investigation into this tragic case.