Neary 'performed unnecessary surgery on another 39 women'

A disgraced obstetrician who needlessly removed the wombs of expectant mothers performed unnecessary surgery on 39 more women, it emerged today.

A new report revealed 39 female patients should be compensated for the trauma they suffered at the hands of Michael Neary, who was struck off in one of the worst examples of medical malpractice in Ireland.

An investigation previously found the shamed doctor carried out 129 hysterectomies over a 25-year period at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth.

The new study however, commissioned by patient support group Patient Focus, concluded Dr Neary appeared not to have been a technically incompetent surgeon.

Professor Roger Clements and Professor Richard Porter examined a further 62 women who complained about the treatment they received at the hands of Dr Neary.

They found of those 39 had valid cases for compensation because of incompetent care.

Patient Focus said up to 70 more women are awaiting medical reports.

"The key bit around this report is that it now raises serious questions about Neary's gynaecological practices," said spokesman Jim Reilly.

"Up to now the focus was on his obstetrics practice on the time of childbirth. Now its on much wider than that."

The UK-based specialists said the sheer number of unnecessary operations performed by a single surgeon indicates a major underlying issue.

They said the most common unnecessary procedure was the removal of one or both ovaries - which the authors describe as female castration.

A number women suffering endometriosis were also coerced into having their ovaries (and sometimes their uterus) removed, the report said, while on other occasions Dr Neary removed one or both ovaries for benign disease such as simple cysts that required only limited surgery.

The experts said they were repeatedly told by these women that Dr Neary told them post-operatively that he had saved their lives.

"Immediate surgical complications were not a feature here," the report concluded.

"Dr Neary appears to have reached diagnoses, frequently incorrectly, based on clinical examination alone, and on that basis performed radical surgery, even though at operation it was clear that the diagnosis had been incorrect.

"Yet faced with the facts at the time of surgery he continued in very many cases to deprive women of their reproductive organs and their own sex hormones.

"In our view the recurrent nature of this behaviour, and the absence of evidence of inadequate surgical technique, raises very troubling questions about his motives."

A matron first expressed concerns over the numbers of Caesarean hysterectomies carried out by Dr Neary in 1978/79, but they were ignored.

No one else raised any issues until October 1998 when two midwives who were consulting the Health Board Solicitor on an unrelated matter sought his advice on serious concerns which one of the midwives had about Dr Neary's practices, and he was eventually suspended.

An investigation in to the medic's practices was launched by the Government in 2004.

The damming Lourdes Hospital Inquiry found a total of 188 peripartum hysterectomies were carried out at Drogheda in the 25 year period from 1974 to 1998, of which 129 were attributed to Dr Neary.

The rate of Caesarean hysterectomies at the hospital was one for every 37 Caesarean sections, compared to one in every 300 at other facilities.

Mr Reilly said that almost a decade after news of the scandal emerged, there still remains to be resolved issues surrounding a process of redress and compensation relating to a small number of damaged former patients of Dr Neary who have strong medical reports indicating the inappropriate nature of their care.

The group today held talks with Minister for Health Mary Harney to demand compensation for up to 20 damaged patients who were not covered under the terms of the Lourdes Hospital Redress Scheme.

The Government was also called on to extend the initiative to cover all former patients who had inappropriate procedures/adverse outcomes in the hospital's maternity unit.

"We believe that the extension of the redress scheme to cover all damaged former patients to be the most appropriate gesture for the State to make in an effort to close this unfortunate chapter in Irish Medicine," he added.

A spokeswoman for Ms Harney said the discussions had been positive, adding the minister will have further talks with the Attorney General.