Terminally ill patient should have been sent for surgery in 2003

MISTAKES can be made in any profession but those who make them must be man enough to put their hands up, Superintendent Martin Dorney told the Medical Council inquiry in Cork just over a week ago.

Supt Dorney, a father of three, from Waterfall, Co Cork, told the inquiry he was battling stage four skin cancer after his doctor failed to send him for further investigative surgery that would have given him a 95% chance of survival.

The garda, who recently celebrated 30 years in the force, was giving evidence at a fitness to practise committee in which his GP, Dr Patrick Joseph Lee, 45, conceded he had tried to cover up his negligence by altering a biopsy report to make it look as though the recommendation for further surgery had not been made.

Supt Dorney went to see Dr Lee in August 2003 after he became concerned about changes in a mole on his knee. The doctor excised it and sent it to the pathology department at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

A report from the hospital indicated the mole was not malignant but a recommendation was made that Supt Dorney attend the hospital for a wider local incision procedure. The mole was described as markedly dysplastic in nature, often a precursor to melanoma. Dr Lee admitted during the 10-hour hearing in Cork that he skimmed the report after returning from a holiday and missed the recommendations laid out by the hospital. He later told Supt Dorney that the mole was benign.

In February 2009, Supt Dorney went to see Dr Lee after noticing a lump on the top of his groin and was given cream to put on it. He returned 10 days later for a review, as agreed, and Dr Lee took blood samples and sent them to the Bon Secours Hospital for analysis.

Supt Dorney was admitted to the Bon Secours on foot of the test results and on March 30 was told the lump was malignant.

Dr Lee said he panicked last year when he realised he had missed the recommendations of the 2003 medical report. He conceded he had tried to cover up his negligence by altering a biopsy report to make it look as though the recommendation for further surgery had not been made. Supt Dorney said he later twigged that the first time Dr Lee had read from the report it was on yellow paper, while the report he showed them at a subsequent meeting was in black and white. He knew then there was something amiss. He was not convinced by Dr Lee’s claim that the negligence was an administrative error.

“I mentioned to him I was almost 30 years in the Garda Síochána and I knew... that he was keeping something from me,” said Supt Doran, who has been told he has months to live.

Finally, on April 30, 2009, Dr Lee confessed his actions to the Dorneys during what both sides described as a very emotional meeting.

Prof Colin Bradley, professor of general practice at University College Cork, said the appropriate action for Dr Lee would have been to make Supt Dorney aware in 2003 he had a suspicious lesion and that a report that read “not malignant” was not the same as saying benign.

He also said it was disgraceful for a doctor to be involved in taking steps to conceal information from a patient. A psychiatrist who gave evidence on Dr Lee’s behalf said he believed the GP had learned a hard lesson and was of the opinion that he did his best for his patients.

Supt Dorney was involved in the investigation of the death of Robert Holohan in Midleton, Cork, in 2005 and the murder of teenager Sheola Keaney from Cobh, Co Cork, in 2006.