OVER 400 WOMEN FIGHTING THE STATE
As Patricia Carrick dies a month after cervical cancer apology...
THE number of women suing the State over alleged failings in cervical cancer screening is now more than 400, with more lawsuits to come. News of the surge in actions being taken emerged yesterday – the same day Patricia Carrick, who was af f ected by t he CervicalCheck scandal, died after her missed diagnosis.
President Michael D Higgins led tributes to the 51-year-old motherof-four who died less than a month after receiving an unprecedented State apology from the Taoiseach.
Micheál Martin paid tribute to Mrs Carrick in the Dáil yesterday, but he was described as ‘cowardly’ last night for how he has handled the
CervicalCheck scandal. Mrs Carrick, from Oranmore in Galway, died surrounded by her family having returned from hospital last week, her solicitor Cian O’Carroll confirmed yesterday.
Mr O’Carroll later revealed that the number of women preparing to take High Court cases against the State over CervicalCheck misreads had risen to 400, and could be 460 by this time next year.
‘People still think there are only 221, but Patricia Carrick wasn’t one of those 221. She was only diagnosed last year. Neither was another case which we settled a couple of months ago. I would say there are now 400 women who have found that mistakes were made, and that number will rise to 460, and then 520 the year after.
‘They are going to keep coming, until mistakes in screening stop being made,’ he said.
Cancer campaign er Vicky Phelan, who took the first High Court case over CervicalCheck failings, said her heart went out to the Carrick family.
‘Another beautiful lady has been taken far too soon,’ she added.
In an emotional tribute, Mrs Carrick was described by her husband Damien Carrick as the ‘love of my life’. He said that his wife of 30 years was now at peace.
Mrs Carrick was so ill she was unable to attend the High Court last month to hear her claim for damages being settled, and to hear the HSE apologise for the first time in court over a misread smear test.
Three weeks ago, she had watched from hospital as Taoi
‘Patricia was only diagnosed last year’
seach Micheál Martin granted her dying wish of a State apology in the Dáil. Mr Martin said she had been badly let down, and that her family was ‘going through the very worst of times because of the mistakes of others’. Mr Carrick announced yesterday that his beloved wife, whom he called Trish, had passed away peacefully in her sleep. He said: ‘She is the love of my life. We have been through many challenges together and we have always prevailed.
‘The best mother that anyone could wish for and a wonderful wife. A true friend and a great sister, daughter, aunt, niece and cousin.’
He added: ‘I am heartbroken for me and for our children. We have lost a wonderful person.’
On behalf of himself and their children – Ciarán, Ríoghna, Sorcha and Eoin, who are aged between 13 and 23 – Mr Carrick thanked all those who had supported them.
President Higgins said he was greatly saddened to hear Patricia Carrick had passed away. ‘I know that Patricia’s courage, which I know she held to the very end, and her grace as a campaigner, provide some solace to her loved ones at this difficult time,’ he said. ‘It is also appropriate at this time to think of all those who were failed by a system in which they had trusted, and their loved ones.’
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, the Taoiseach also conveyed his sincere sympathies to Mrs Carrick’s family.
However, Mr Martin was last night described, along with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, as ‘cowardly’ for their reaction to the scandal, amid communications failings with survivors in relation to the establishment of a tribunal into the screening fiasco.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly said the Taoiseach and Mr Donnelly needed to stand up for the hundreds of sick women still being dragged through the courts.
He told the Mail: ‘I want to Government the Government to finally, once and for all, stand up for what Vicky Phelan, Lorraine Walsh, Ruth Morrissey and all of them wanted. This is ultimately a political decision and they can be resolved with the political will.
‘Both the Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly have acted cowardly on this.’ The HSE and Medlab Pathology, from Sandyford, Dublin, had both apologised in court following Mr and Mrs Carrick’s allegation that the HSE had failed to diagnose, missed or misinterpreted two samples, taken in 2014 and 2016.
It was said the HSE, or its agents, were responsible for a situation in which her cancer ‘was allowed to develop and spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated’ until she was diagnosed in July 2019.
By the time of the court case, which was settled for €2.75million in damages following mediation, Ms Carrick was terminally ill and receiving palliative care.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD said: ‘Patricia shouldn’t have died, she should not have been put through what she was put through, yet she fought, even in ill health, to accomplish something for the women of this country. Let us never forget her name.’