‘THEY KEPT SAYING MY HUSBAND WAS FINE... BUT I KNEW’ EXCLUSIVE
Wife tells the Mail how she begged for one last X-ray and says...
THE WIFE of a man who is now dying after University Hospital Kerry failed to identify his cancer has told the Irish Daily Mail she realised he was seriously ill despite his all-clear scans.
‘He kept on getting chest infections. He was always unwell and really started to go downhill in 2016,’ she said.
But tragically, it was almost a full year after the 71-year-old got his first scan giving him the all-clear that the couple discovered he had lung cancer.
‘Although one after the other, results kept coming back as positive, I just didn’t believe them,’ she said. ‘At the start of 2017, I begged for one last X-ray at the hospital.’
Finally, in April last year, her husband got
the diagnosis that the Co. Kerry couple – who have been married for 40 years – feared the most.
The woman, who did not wish to be named, broke down in tears as she added: ‘He has a daughter he will never walk down the aisle.
‘He has three granddaughters, two of whom are very young and he won’t be around for their first day at school. Those little girls adore their grandfather and it’s going to break their heart.
‘My children have a father who is not going to be around for very much longer.
‘And I am losing my best friend.’ The retired man is one of the 11 patients of UHK affected by ‘significant’ errors in the delayed diagnosis controversy at the hospital.
His case was referred to as Case 8 in a report on the lookback review of radiology reports relating to 26,000 patients associated with an individual radiologist at UHK between March 2016 and July last year. The report states that his cancer diagnosis was delayed by 51 weeks.
The review led to 422 patients being recalled to the hospital for reassessment, and a total of 20 patients – nine of whom cannot be traced – have yet to be reassessed, leading to fears the death toll could be higher.
The Kerry husband’s case was one of two raised in the Dáil by
The review let to 422 being recalled’
Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty. During Leader’s Questions, the TD relayed information provided to him by Kerry councillor Toiréasa Ferris, who has campaigned on the issue since it first emerged last year.
Mr Doherty told TDs: ‘Between March and October 2016, the now 71-year-old, who is a husband, a father and a grandfather, had three chest X-rays.
‘His cancer was not picked up in any of the three X-rays.
‘His symptoms persisted and at the insistence and persistence of his wife, the GP referred him for another X-ray in early 2017 and he was finally diagnosed.
‘I am informed that he only has a short time left and the family firmly believes that if it had been detected in any of the three earlier X-rays, the prognosis would not have been terminal.’
The man’s wife told the Mail that her husband doesn’t talk much about what has happened.
‘This is partly because he finds it difficult to talk, but I think it is also because he is very angry,’ she said. ‘Don’t get me wrong, he has never complained and I could never cope with things the way he is, but yes, although he doesn’t complain, I know inside he is very angry and upset.’
Despite the devastating news, she is determined to remain as positive and strong as she can. However, she is angry about the missed opportunities to diagnose his cancer.
‘I am mad, I am angry and I am also devastated,’ she said. ‘And I do still wonder if the people responsible for this realise what devastation they have caused.
‘He was Stage Three when he was diagnosed and the cancer was so far gone, it had become inoperable. It had spread to such a rate by the time they found it in April 2017, it was wrapped around the main artery of his heart.
‘Doctors have tried to shrink it and he had endured months of absolutely horrific treatment.
‘Although he still looks fine, he doesn’t look sick. But he now survives on oxygen 24 hours a day. The cancer is now at Stage Four and it has spread to his liver.’
She does not believe he will last long after Christmas, but while it is something the couple think about, it isn’t something they talk about.
‘We haven’t asked how long he has to live and, to be honest, we don’t want to know,’ she said.
While he once said he would love to go on a last cruise, that is very unlikely now due to his deteriorating condition. Indeed, he even had to give up going to the pub earlier this year because it used too much oxygen. The last time he went, he used up three cylinders of oxygen. ‘This Christmas, we are all going to try and get him down to his local,’ his wife said. ‘He loved being there among all his old buddies and as it is likely to be his last Christmas, his son is determined to make sure he gets down there for a few pints over the festive season.’
Despite the fact that someone at UHK was responsible for the diagnosis failures, neither of them can fault the team handling his care since. In particular, the man’s wife has nothing but praise for the hospital’s palliative care consultant, Dr Patricia Sheahan.
Although her husband is based at home, his treatment is overseen by the hospital’s palliative care unit, which organises home visits by its team of nurses.
‘Patricia is just fantastic and the devotion she and her team have shown not just to my husband but the other palliative care patients is just extraordinary,’ she said. ‘That woman is amazing. She is at the palliative care unit first thing in the morning and last thing at night and is contactable 24-7. If only other doctors could be like her. And as for the Health Minister, don’t get me started.’
She is angry that Simon Harris didn’t travel to Tralee on Wednesday for the publication of the results of the review.
‘I did not see any sign of him on Wednesday when the report was published,’ she said.
‘It is indicative of the way I think the establishment treat people like us in situations like this.
‘The report was, for example, delivered to my door by a taxi driver. And when I watch the hospital authorities explain things on TV, I don’t get any great sense of genuine sympathy.
‘If he cared as much about this situation – in which at least four people have died – he would have been in Kerry on Wednesday.’
And she added: ‘I would love him to come down to my home and look myself and my husband in the eye and not only say sorry, but admit he knows the health service in this country is broken.
‘What more proof does he need that the system is broken?’
A spokesperson for Mr Harris said last night: ‘The minister would like to express his heartfelt sympathies to the patients and families involved.
‘The minister acknowledges this was a time of uncertainty for patients and their families.’
Mr Harris has been told that all of the patients involved have received follow-up care as needed and have been supported by South/South West Hospital Group, of which UHK is part. ‘The minister intends to meet the management of the hospital group shortly to discuss the implementation of the recommendations of the report,’ the spokesperson said.
All questions posed to Heneghan PR, which represents the SSWHG, went unanswered yesterday.
Among the questions the company was asked was: why was the group’s review report delivered to people by taxi, and not – given that some of those receiving the report have terminal cancer – by a member of the hospital’s management team? Another unanswered question was a request for a comment about the three missed chances to diagnose the 71-yearold grandfather’s cancer.
‘And Harris – don’t get me started’