CT scan ‘offers hope’ of remission for Ruth
The cancer had reduced in size Radiotherapy could result in remission
THE Limerick mother who developed cervical cancer after two smear tests were misread has been told her tumour has reduced in size, the High Court has heard.
A report by Ruth Morrissey’s treating consultant following a pelvic CT scan carried out last week ‘offers hope’ to Ms Morrissey, who had been told her condition was terminal.
Professor Rajnish Gupta said the pelvic mass had reduced in size and although inoperable, he hoped it would respond to three months of radical radiotherapy which will now begin.
At the end of that course of treatment, Ms Morrissey will learn if she still has a matter of months to live or if, as some experts have suggested, her cancer may go into remission for a number of years.
On hearing the update, Judge Kevin Cross agreed to adjourn her case, which began last week on an urgent basis given her previously terminal prognosis.
He said it will resume on September 18, after all sides have had an opportunity to complete and exchange their expert reports about her smear tests.
Ms Morrissey, 37, a mother of one from Monaleen, Co. Limerick, has sued for damages for alleged negligence and breach of duty by the HSE and the two labs which wrongly analysed her routine smear tests in 2009 and 2012.
The court has heard she would have had a less than 1% chance of developing invasive cancer had pre-cancerous changes in her cervix been correctly reported and treated in 2009.
A review of her two smear tests was conducted by the laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and Medlab Pathology, following her diagnosis of cancer in 2014, and the court has heard it was discovered then that the smears were incorrectly analysed as being negative.
Ms Morrissey’s legal team said her doctors were told about this in June 2016, but it was not until May of this year that she was told about the review, following media exposure given to the Cervical-Check scandal by Vicky Phelan.
An application to adjourn the case was made yesterday by Michael Cush SC, for Quest, who said Ms Morrissey was no longer ‘at risk of imminent demise’.
He said the three-month radical radiotherapy now proposed for Ms Morrissey could result in a complete remission or a prolonged remission period for her.
He said this took the urgency out of the case, so there was no longer any reason for the laboratories to be prejudiced in their defence by a lack of time to get all the expert reports they needed.
A request from Ms Morrissey for the case to continue next month would put the defendants in an invidious position, he said.
He added that the case should not continue until November, when the outcome of Ms Morrissey’s treatment would be known following another CT scan.
He said her prognosis would affect the amount of any damages paid, and that there were too many variables for the case to be adjudicated on before that time.
Conor Halpin SC, for Medlab, agreed, adding that one expert had said 50% of patients went into remission following the treatment proposed for Ms Morrissey.
Patrick Hanratty SC, for the HSE, said he would be ready to resume in September, by which time all the expert reports should be ready and exchanged.
He said the HSE had last Friday invited the laboratories to resume mediation in the case, but he said that while they were both agreeable to this, mediation could not ‘do its job’ until all the reports were available.
Ciara McGoldrick BL, for Ms Morrissey, said the court hearings had been extremely traumatic for her client, who wanted them dealt with as soon as possible.
She said occupational therapists agreed that Ms Morrissey needed aids and appliances, and modifications to her home, to assist her as she begins a course of debilitating treatment. And she said that while Prof. Gupta’s report offered hope to her client, there was still a risk she could succumb to the disease in the next 12 to 24 months.