Man's stomach 'unnecessarily removed'

A 26-year-old man whose stomach was unnecessarily removed after he was wrongly diagnosed with cancer broke down as he told the High Court today of his shock after finding out that there had been a mistake in the diagnosis.

Alan O' Gorman said: "It's extremely difficult to put into words. I was so annoyed. I was so angry and bitter about the whole thing, how they could make such a simple error in diagnosing someone so young."

The court has been told that analysis of the his removed stomach after the operation showed no evidence of cancer and it was later discovered that his tissue sample had been mixed up with that of a 70-year-old cancer patient.

Mr O' Gorman said he had taken overdoses of pills four times because of the stress caused by the operation. He said: "Every day there is some sort of pain or discomfort. I just decided I could not take any more.

"Every day is a constant struggle, even to this day. I just felt I was never going to be the person I should be. I just didn't see any other way out."

Mr O'Gorman, of The Close, Fox Lodge Woods, Ratoath, Co Meath, is alleging negligence in his treatment.

The action is against a representative of St Vincent's hospital and six other defendants. They are Ms Ritu Guai Kapur, a pathology registrar at the hospital; three technicians at the hospital - Robert Geraghty,

Bernie Curran and John Harford; Mr Daniel K Sheahan, a consultant Histo-Pathologist at the hospital and Mr Justin Geoghegan, a consultant surgeon at the hospital. The defendants have denied the claims.

Mr O' Gorman said that prior to the operation in March 2002 he had discussed with the surgeon, Mr Justin Geoghegan, a partial gastrectomy.

He said he was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital on March 18th and the operation was to be carried out on March 19th.

"I remember saying: 'make sure that there is something there before you take everything out. In my mind I was hoping that some of my stomach would be saved," he told his counsel Mr Mark de Blacam SC.

"The moment I woke up even though I was under morphine, the first thing I remember saying ever so clearly was how much did they take? My father replied they have taken everything. I remember breaking down and I nodded off after a couple of minutes.''

Mr O' Gorman said he was "deeply upset and horrified" when he realised that his whole stomach had been removed. He said that four or five days later Mr Geoghegan told him they were having trouble locating the tumour.

He said that Mr Geoghegan assured him not to worry and they would find something.

"I said what if you don't find anything to which he replied: 'Well then we will have made a terrible mistake," he added.

When he told his parents they were quite concerned and when they met in his room with Mr Geoghegan and asked him about a mix up he said he would investigate the matter but it was unlikely that any sort of mix up had occurred.

Mr Geoghegan later told him that there appeared to have been a mix up in the tissue samples and he had received someone else's diagnosis.

He explained that the registrar Ms Ritu Guai Kapur had pierced her finger and technicians had taken over the samples and this had led to some other patient's tissue getting on to his slide.

Mr Geoghegan told Mr O' Gorman how terrible he felt about the injury he had caused to him and said he had done him harm.

Mr O' Gorman said he did at that stage feel a lot of sympathy for Mr Geoghegan but that had

changed. He said he phoned his parents to tell them there had been a mix up of his tissue with another patient's and he could hear them breaking down over the phone.

At a meeting in April it was explained that the registrar had not injured herself when the slides were being prepared but had left for a pre-arranged appointment with an occupational therapist over a sharp object injury that had occurred previously.

Mr O' Gorman said that he remembered getting the "most sincere apology" from Dr Oscar Traynor on behalf of the hospital for what had happened.

He said that in November 2003 he had taken an overdose of painkillers in the Merrion Inn pub and had then gone to the A and E department at St Vincent's "so I could show them exactly what they had done to me".

He said he had taken overdoses of sleeping pills on three occasions.

Mr O' Gorman said he is now "just eating to survive" and takes no pleasure in eating or his food and cannot stand to be in the company of other people who are eating. He said he has no tolerance of dairy products and has to have a monthly injection of Vitamin B 12.

He has also been told that his iron levels have begun to drop and he will need to take a liquid iron supplement.

"I feel abnormal. It just feels unnatural. I don't eat a lot at all. I eat a lot of junk. I drink a lot of coffee and I eat crisps because they don't cause me discomfort.''

Mr O' Gorman said that he is now attending a course at the Sallynoggin College of Further Education and hopes to do a degree course that will lead to a career in website development.

He said that he had attended counselling and a psychiatrist but his feelings about the whole incident had not changed. "I am a different a person. I have to find a reason to keep myself going and remind myself that my life has changed. It will always be with me for the rest of my life,'' he said.