Man settles case over wife's cervical cancer death as HSE and US lab offer 'deep regrets'
(Left to right) Aoife Mitchell Creaven’s parents, Gabriel and Marcella, with her widowed husband Padraig Creaven leaving the High Court yesterday. After his wife’s death, Padraig Creaven was left alone with no child, a widower at 44 years of age. Photo: Collins Courts
The HSE and a US laboratory today said in the High Court they “deeply regret the pain, suffering and incalculable loss” experienced by a 40-year-old woman who died of cervical cancer, her husband and her family.
Aoife Mitchell Creaven had to have a termination at 20 weeks of her much-wanted IVF pregnancy after she discovered she had terminal cervical cancer.
Three years after her death in 2015, her family were told of a CervicalCheck audit of her 2011 smear test taken under the national screening programme showed a change in the interpretation from the original result of no abnormalities detected.
Her husband, who sued for nervous shock over his wife’s death and the alleged misinterpretation of her 2011 smear slide, included a claim for the costs of future surrogacy. The court heard he hopes to use the couple’s frozen embryos to fulfill his deceased’s wife wish for a child through surrogacy.
In a statement to the High Court as the settlement was announced, the HSE and US laboratory CPL said they wished to acknowledge that this “is a uniquely tragic case which has had the most devastating consequences for Aoife, her husband Padraig Creaven, and for Aoife’s family.”
It added: “We deeply regret the pain, suffering and incalculable loss experienced by Aoife, Padraic and her family.” The HSE in the statement said it “reiterates its sincere and unreserved apology to Mr Creaven for the failure by the CervicalCheck programme to communicate with him in a timely and appropriate way, the results of an audit that indicated a change in the interpretation of Aoife’s smear taken on August 8, 2011".
Noting the settlement, Ms Justice Deirdre Murphy said she would like to extend her sympathy and condolences to Mr Creaven and the Mitchell family.
The judge said the court was particularly struck by the opening of the case where it was stated that Mrs Marcella Mitchell had travelled to London with her daughter Aoife for the termination.
The judge said one can only imagine how horrendous that was for the mother and daughter.
Outside court, Mr Creaven from Menlo, Galway, flanked by his solicitor Cian O’Carroll in a statement said he was happy to have got an acknowledgment from the HSE and CPL.
He said:
He added: “I hope going forward that more women won’t have to lose their lives before the system changes.” He said he wanted to acknowledge Aoife’s family for all the help and support and of him and his late wife “through an unimaginably difficult time.” The details of the settlement are confidential.
His case against the HSE, three laboratories and a hospital centred on the alleged misinterpretation of the woman’s cervical smear sample in 2011 taken under the CervicalCheck national screening programme.
At the opening of the case, Mr Creaven’s counsel, Jeremy Maher SC, said Aoife Mitchell Creaven found out in November 2013 she and her husband were to become parents after years of IVF treatment and they were “deliriously happy.” But he said their joy with the pregnancy after several unsuccessful IVF attempts was short-lived and Ms Mitchell Creaven found out she had terminal cervical cancer after discovering a lump on her neck in January 2014.
She and her husband, counsel said, had “the most extraordinary and difficult dilemma” and the “necessary course of action was to terminate the pregnancy”.
Surgery was not an option and Ms Mitchell Creaven required chemotherapy. Counsel said there was a great concern about delay in treatment and in relation to the pregnancy.
He said the couple, when Aoife was dying, had to attend a medical conference in Cork where medics discussed her case and a decision was made that the termination under the legislation at the time could not take place in Ireland. The couple decided they would have to look outside of Ireland.
Ms Mitchell Creaven along with her mother went to London in mid-March 2014 and the termination took place, After that counsel said the couple tried to find anything to prolong Aoife’s life but she died in 2015.
After his wife’s death, counsel said Mr Creaven was left alone with no child, a widower at 44 years of age and her death had a devastating effect on him.
Now, counsel said, Mr Creaven is determined to honour his wife's wish and proceed to have a child through surrogacy. The couple’s frozen embryos are in a fertility clinic in the Czech Republic and Mr Creaven wants to go to the US for surrogacy.
“It is the only way he can fulfill the wish they both had,” Counsel added.
The case, counsel said, also included a claim for aggravated or punitive damages in relation to an alleged comment by a consultant to a member of Aoife’s family during a disclosure meeting in 2018 in relation to the result of a CervicalCheck audit of the 2011 slide. The consultant’s alleged comment "well, nuns don’t get cervical cancer," counsel said, was grossly insensitive.
Aoife’s husband Padraig Creaven has sued on behalf of himself and Aoife’s family.
Mr Padraig Creaven of Menlo, Co. Galway, had sued the HSE and three laboratories, Sonic Healthcare (Ireland) Ltd with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin; MedLab Pathology Ltd also of Sandyford Business Park and US laboratory Clinical Pathology Laboratories Incorporated (CPL) of Austin, Texas.
The case was also against Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, Dublin.
Ms Mitchell had a cervical smear test under the cervical check national screening program on August 8, 2011. She was advised on August 31, 2011, that no abnormalities were detected.
It was claimed that a review of the 2011 cervical smear slide was carried out in 2014 but the Creaven Mitchell families were not told until 2018 that the smear slide was reported incorrectly.
It was claimed against the HSE and the three laboratories that there was an alleged failure to report that the smear slide of 2011 was abnormal and Ms Mitchell Creaven was allegedly deprived the opportunity of timely and effective investigation and management of her condition.
It was claimed against the hospital that that it allegedly concealed or failed to advise the Mitchell Creavens in a timely manner the result of a review of her 2011 smear slide.
All the claims were denied.
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