Teacher hopes to warn others after misdiagnosis at 27

A YOUNG teacher whose breast cancer went undiagnosed at one of the country’s leading hospitals has told her story in the hope of encouraging other women with symptoms to insist on thorough tests.

Tricia McCarthy, now 29, had to have a mastectomy last year after the belated discovery that she had an aggressive tumour which had already spread to her lymph nodes.

Yet eight months earlier the Co Cork-born art teacher had been sent home from St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin without a biopsy because doctors there believed the lump she had found in her left breast to be benign.

She only discovered the truth when she began bleeding and went to University Hospital Galway where a full set of tests — including a biopsy — were carried out. She ended up losing her breast, enduring rigorous cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and undergoing reconstructive surgery.

“I want other young women to be aware of what can happen. Most of the other stories about cancer misdiagnoses have been about women who were older than me but women in their 20s can get breast cancer too,” she explained.

“Mistakes are made because people make assumptions. Because I didn’t have any of the normal risk factors — no family history of breast cancer, I didn’t smoke, I wasn’t overweight — but particularly because of my age seeing as I was only 27 — I didn’t stand out as likely to have cancer.

“If I had known what I know now — that you are supposed to have triple assessment — I would have asked why I didn’t have the third strand of the tests, the biopsy. I put my faith in the hospital because it’s one of the recommended centres of excellence.”

Triple assessment is the standard of testing that all major cancer centres are supposed to carry out. It involves a physical examination, a mammogram or ultrasound and a biopsy where tissues from the lump are removed for lab tests.

Tricia, who is from Schull in west Cork but now lives in Galway, said she felt she should go public after reading about another young woman, Jenna Brandon, who was 24 when her breast cancer also went undiagnosed by St Vincent’s for eight months.

“It made me wonder how many more women have had this happen to them. ”

Tricia was stoic about losing her breast but she is also having to deal with the blow that she will probably be unable to have children because her cancer was accelerated by hormones and she is having to take medication to counteract that.

St Vincent’s has apologised to Tricia and it issued a statement which said: “As one of the leading centres for the treatment of breast cancer, St Vincent’s University Hospital has a deep appreciation of the difficult situation that Patricia McCarthy is now dealing with and hospital staff are available to meet with her again at any stage to discuss her concerns.”

The Irish Cancer Society echoed Tricia’s advice about insisting on thorough testing. “Any woman who has any doubts should go back to her GP and ask to get a second opinion,” said spokeswoman, Jane Curtin. “They can ring our Action Breast Cancer helpline 1800 30 90 40 and talk to a specialist nurse so they know what questions to ask and what points to raise.” Litany of mistakes

REBECCA O’Malley from Tipperary went public last year to reveal how her breast cancer diagnosis was delayed by 14 months due to errors at Cork University Hospital and Limerick Regional.

Tipperary woman, Patient A, was mistakenly given the all-clear for breast cancer at Barrington’s Hospital in 2005. It also emerged Jenna Brandon was suing St Vincent’s Hospital for giving her an erroneous all-clear in 2005.

In April this year, Ann Moriarty died after getting an all-clear from both St James Hospital, Dublin, and Ennis General and in June, Edel Kelly from Kilrush died, again after a misdiagnosis at Ennis.