Terminally ill Emma buys €1.25m house
EMMA Mhic Mhathúna, the Kerry mother of five who is dying from cervical cancer, is to buy a house close to Dublin, where she is being treated, the High Court has heard.
In June, Ms Mhic Mhathúna, 37, was awarded €7.5million in damages to secure her children’s future, along with admissions of liability and apologies from both the HSE and Quest Diagnostics Inc, the US company which negligently failed to diagnose her cancer on two occasions in 2010 and 2013.
She had claimed her cancer was allowed to develop and spread ‘unidentified, unmonitored and untreated’ until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in September 2016.
Her children, aged between 15 and 2, were co-plaintiffs in the action, and she has said that all the money she won will go towards their care, accommodation and education up to and including university.
She is one of the 209 women who were told earlier this year by the HSE that their smear tests were read incorrectly.
At the time of the settlement, Judge Kevin Cross approved a payment out of court of just over a million euro, to buy a house near their current rented home in Baile na nGall, Co. Kerry, to ensure the family could stay together.
But her counsel Patrick Treacy SC said yesterday that the plan had not worked out.
He said the house had structural problems, and that Ms Mhic Mhathúna wanted to be closer to Dublin, where she is receiving treatment. It would also be easier to access for her parents, who live in the UK, Mr Treacy said.
He said a suitable home within reach of Dublin had been found for Ms Mhic Mhathúna and her family, at a cost of €1.25million.
He asked for a payment out of court to buy the house. He said it would be bought by her solicitor, in trust for her and her children.
Ms Mhic Mhathúna was in court, and confirmed that she had heard the request.
‘I always listen very carefully when it comes to money for my children,’ she said.
Judge Cross said he would order that the money be paid out, to enable her to buy the house.
Mr Treacy asked for the case to be listed again over the summer, when he hoped to have specialist trust and tax advice regarding money being held for his client’s children.