‘They seem to have learned nothing’

Seamus Enright

“It makes me cry to think what those women and their families are going through now, because they're suffering like I'm suffering”, the husband of a Cavan woman who died following a misdiagnosed cervical cancer screening a decade ago, has said.

Given the current crisis over alleged delays in identifying smear test abnormalities, Joe Cahill believes little has been learned since his wife Bridie (nee Reynolds) passed away 10 years ago.
Speaking to The Anglo-Celt from his home on the outskirts of Bailieborough Town, an emotional Joe, recalls “... at a quarter to 12 on the 13th of April, 2008, that's when she died. Almost 10-years one-month and one week from today. What's terrible is it's still going on across the country. They seem to have learned nothing, and women are dying needlessly!”
He adds: “I cry my eyes out, nearly everyday I do, because we were that close. I miss her so much. I lost everything [when Bridie died]. I had plans to do away with myself, only people said Bridie wouldn't have wanted that.”
Joe believes, had his wife been correctly scanned or tested at the time, the 76-year-old originally from Belturbet might still be alive today. “We went everywhere together, we were never apart. We absolutely idolised each other. I never left her side, during all of the good times, and in the times when she was sick, I made sure I was by her bedside. We were meant to be together, through whatever came our way. We lived for each other.”
Four weeks after Bridie tragically passed away at Drogheda's Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, within days of each other on May 14 and May 16, two almost identical diagnosis review letters arrived to the Bettystown home the couple then shared. They admitted cancer screenings had been “misdiagnosed”, and that Bridie was now required to attend the same hospital for treatment.
The second letter was even more forthright, informing that if she failed to attend, an ambulance would be dispatched to bring her.
 

Shock

“I was left staring into space. I couldn't get my head around it. I thought to myself - how could they?,” Joe told The Anglo-Celt, recalling the shock at opening the letters and realising the seriousness of what the contents meant.
As a result, Joe retains a degree of the anger compounded at being forced to sit by and watch a roll call of doctors commanding his wife's care tell them there was “nothing wrong”.
“But she knew she was sick, she was bleeding and in pain,” says Joe of Bridie, who at the time had appeared to recover from treatment having been diagnosed with breast cancer during the 1990s.
It wasn't until March-April 2008 when Bridie was readmitted that a large polypoid mass was discovered and uterine cancer finally detected.
A subsequent expert study recorded a number of failings dating back to 2000 shortly after Bridie was first “urgently referred” by her GP following an abnormal cervical smear.
The current cancer-screening controversy emerged last month after Limerick mum-of-two Vicky Phelan settled an action against a US laboratory the Cervical Check screening service had subcontracted to read smear tests. She had received a false negative result in 2011, and later discovered she had cancer.
It was subsequently discovered, following a full audit of test results, that misreadings were found in more than 200 other cases.
In the fallout, Tony O'Brien resigned from his post as HSE chief, while several senior government ministers apologised, with Minister for Health Simon Harris ordering a full review of the cervical screening programme to ensure it operates in line with international best practice.
Joe however, remains unconvinced that the necessary change will be implemented to avoid such issues in future.
“If she was here today, I know she would tell me to keep going! She'd say, 'If it helps other people, do all you can, and say what you can'. Let there be no more deaths like Bridie's. Let the people be told the truth so if it's the worst, that they can make the most of what's left of their lives.”
 

Bravery

Cavan-Monaghan Fianna Fail TD Niamh Smyth, who is aware of Joe and Bridie's story, praised his bravery in speaking out. She says their case is just “one significant example” of how screeningof cervical checks have fallen short of what was expected.
“The realities of a misdiagnosis are harrowing, not only for the persons involved but their families as well, many with young children and they must all be struggling to comprehend what is taking place. It's so very disturbing our health system, which is supposed to have people at its centre, could be do dysfunctional for so long on this. It is deplorable protocol, and it will only begin to be remedied by a full forensic analysis of how these faults came about. There needs to be accountability, and for the women out there waiting for new checks, greater compassion and understanding and not this almost businesslike conveyor-belt, come take a number and wait scenario that seems to be playing out.”