Mother tells hearing of outrage at son’s death

“I KNEW there was something wrong. Nobody listened to me. I was the over-anxious mother fussing about her child. Now I have no child. It’s just not good enough.”

With those words, Barbara Haran broke down yesterday as she gave evidence to a hearing of the Irish Medical Council (IMC) about how her son, Mark, died after a radiologist at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda allegedly misread an MRI scan.

Ms Haran and her husband, John, rejected claims by consultant radiologist John Hanson that he had diagnosed their eldest child as having “a grossly enlarged” part of the brain. They both questioned why Dr Hanson had failed to act with urgency if the scan had showed the results he claimed.

“I have to live with the fact that I told my son they didn’t make a mistake reading his scan but I know that they did,” said Ms Haran.

A Department of Social Protection employee and mother of five, Ms Haran sobbed as she explained how she was shocked to find out that Dr Hanson had waited a week before writing up a report on her son’s MRI scan.

The IMC’s fitness-to- practise committee is examining nine charges of alleged professional misconduct against Dr Hanson.

Mark Haran, a 23-year- old business graduate from Julianstown, Co Meath, died in Beaumont Hospital on April 4, 2008, after being admitted twice to Our Lady’s Hospital over the previous fortnight with headaches and dizziness.

The inquiry heard that Dr Hanson, aged 40, of Malahide, Co Dublin, insists he informed two junior doctors about Mark’s brain being grossly enlarged before compiling his report.

Ms Haran said she was angry and upset to learn that Mark’s scan had shown some abnormality on his re-admission to Our Lady’s Hospital on April 2, 2008, as they had previously been reassured that it was fine.

Ms Haran said her son had “hit the nail on the head” when he asked her if the doctors misread his scan.

Ms Haran said she never saw her son alive after leaving him on the night of April 2. He was found collapsed on the floor by his bed about 5am the following morning and transferred to Beaumont Hospital.

Mark’s father – a retired HSE employee – said Dr Hanson had been unable to offer any reply when asked why he hadn’t immediately contacted a medical consultant given the serious findings of the MRI scan.

Dr Soon Liang Justin Low, a specialist registrar at Our Lady’s Hospital, said a reference in Dr Hanson’s report to “marked” enlargement of Mr Haran’s brain should have aroused urgency.

Dr Low, who examined Mark on re-admission, said he had not treated the case more urgently because he had been falsely assured by two verbal reports on the scan which were of a “consistently benign nature”.

An inquest into Mark’s death last year recorded a verdict of death by medical misadventure. The hearing continues today.