State faces €40m compo payout to Neary victims

THE State faces a €40 million payout for the malpractice of disgraced obstetrician Michael Neary after committing to a redress scheme for his victims.

Up to 250 women will seek compensation for the loss of their wombs and other traumas suffered in needless surgeries carried out by Neary and others at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda over a 25-year period.

Two families will also claim for the loss of babies they say died from negligent or inappropriate practices in the maternity unit. Their complaints were not documented in this week’s report by Judge Maureen Harding Clark who investigated the abnormally high rate of Caesarean hysterectomies at the hospital up to 1998.