Cork woman criticises the 'grilling' she received during Cervical Check case
Tara Murphy at her home in Cork. 'My eldest daughter has sensory issues... the questions were very much focused on that. They were basically saying my depression and health anxiety was [caused by] that.' Picture: Denis Minihane
A Cork woman who took a High Court case around the alleged misreading of cervical smear slides has said she was shocked at the “grilling” she received and demanded changes in how the cases are treated.
“At one point I was obviously really upset, and this was not the end yet,” Tara Murphy said of her three days on the stand.
“I remember thinking ‘I have not done anything wrong here, and yet I am the one sitting outside crying over how I’m being treated’. And I’m tough enough, it’s hard to get me to cry.”
Up to June 1, the State Claims Agency had received 385 CervicalCheck claims. Earlier this month another woman died while her case was before the court.
Ms Murphy said this prompted her to speak out: “It’s a different bad way of treating women”.
Her case ran over 13 days between January and early March, following two years of preparation including extensive medical appointments, psychiatric evaluations, and getting smears re-checked by external experts. She said:
She was expecting questions about her claims or her hysterectomy in 2020, aged 32.
“My eldest daughter has sensory issues, they’re mild compared to what other mothers and fathers dealing with, and the questions were very much focused on that,” she said.
“They were basically saying my depression and health anxiety was [caused by] that. It was very much geared towards her.”
By the evening of the third day, she had to interrupt.
“I said ‘I’ve had enough, I’m not answering any more questions about my young daughter. She isn’t the reason I am here, she didn’t cause this'. Eventually the court did interject and it had to be stopped,” she said.
“There were a few different questions put obviously about my medical history, my sex life after the hysterectomy, all this kind of stuff but the focus was very much on my daughter and her needs. Personally I felt it was a way of breaking down someone, trying to go through their kids.” She added:
She emailed senior Government politicians asking for change including guidelines for legal teams but only Micheáll Martin got in touch with a personal phone call.
Ms Murphy’s solicitor Cian O’Carroll said: “She proved, established the rights of her case as all the other women have done, but she was put through three days of cross-examination by a barrister appointed by MedLab Pathology but representing the HSE, representing us.”
They were not invited to mediation before the trial opened.
Her smear tests with CervicalCheck in 2016 and 2018 were clear. However, in 2019 a routine hospital smear after the birth of her second daughter identified pre-cancerous cells.
A spokesman for the SCA said it is "conscious of the ordeal that individuals and their families suffer following an event that results in a claim alleging clinical negligence".
"It takes every step it can, in cases where it is a defendant, to ensure that litigation is handled sensitively and ethically and that, wherever possible, such litigation does not add to the distress already suffered by those affected and by their families.”
He said in this case “the HSE received a full indemnity from Medlab. The indemnity had been given in advance of the trial and, therefore, Medlab conducted the defence of the case at trial.”
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