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.