Woman to sue Cork hospital over cancer diagnosis delay
By Conall O Fátharta
Thursday, September 09, 2010
A 49-YEAR-OLD woman is to sue the Bon Secours Hospital in Cork for what she claims was a delayed diagnosis of bowel cancer.
Lawyers for the mother-of-two went before the High Court yesterday in an effort to speed up the hearing of her case as "her prognosis was poor".
The woman in question claims that despite having had tests carried out by the hospital in October 2006, her diagnosis of bowel cancer with secondary liver cancer was not made until three years later.
She claims that had she been diagnosed at an earlier stage, she could have been treated successfully for the illness.
At a hearing in the High Court yesterday, her lawyers requested that the court order the defendants in the case, the hospital, a consultant and a GP to file a defence at an earlier date.
The woman’s legal counsel said they were anxious that the case be speeded up because of the seriousness of the prognosis for her illness.
However, lawyers for the hospital countered this argument and told the court that while they had sympathy for the woman’s situation and her current condition, they needed time to file a proper and meaningful defence for their clients.
Hearing the case, Mr Justice Seán Ryan said it was evident that the woman had an extremely serious illness and he was aware that the case should be heard as soon as possible.
However, he said the defendants had to be given adequate time to make their case rather than rush headlong into a hearing.
He subsequently refused an order for an ‘abridgement of time’. Such an order would have required the defence to be filed at an earlier juncture.
Mr Justice Ryan did however put the case in for mention early next month. He said he hoped that progress could be made before then in the case.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, September 09, 2010
