The family of a 75-year-old woman who say she was scheduled to have her stomach removed at Dublin's Mater hospital after initial tests wrongly indicated she had stomach cancer now want a full inquiry into what happened.
Kathleen Byrne, who is the mother of Patients Together founder Janette Byrne, had a biopsy at the hospital last October and was told it indicated she had stomach cancer.
The family were told she would have to have her stomach removed. They suggested another biopsy might be in order to double-check the diagnosis but claim they were told there was no need and that the surgery would go ahead.
Mrs Byrne was booked to have her operation on November 16th and, at a pre-operative clinic a few days before her surgery, her family again questioned the diagnosis. They said that while she had been admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain in October, she was now feeling a lot better.
They were shown a letter stating that the initial biopsy "showed well differentiated adenocarcinoma of the stomach". They then, according to Janette Byrne, accepted the diagnosis.
But on the morning before her surgery was due to take place, she was called for a further biopsy. When the family asked why, Janette says they were told the hospital was just "crossing the Ts and dotting the Is".
After this biopsy, they were told there were some "discrepancies" and Kathleen's operation was cancelled. She was discharged the following day.
When the family questioned the second biopsy, they were led to believe, Janette claims, that she still had cancer but that it just wasn't showing up.
Her mother then received a letter stating she was being transferred to Beaumont Hospital.
A separate letter seen by The Irish Times, dated November 20th, indicates this was for a second opinion and that the second set of biopsies at the Mater had "showed no evidence of malignancy". It also advised Beaumont that if surgery should be required, it should take place at Beaumont.
Further biopsies at Beaumont indicated Mrs Byrne did not have stomach cancer. Another letter, from Beaumont to the Mater in March this year, reveals that UK pathologist Prof Neil Shepherd reviewed all the biopsies and, in his opinion, "there was no evidence of malignancy in the initial gastric biopsies" taken at the Mater.
The Byrne family now want a full investigation. They want the Mater to look at its policy of proceeding with full gastrectomy (stomach removal) on the basis of a first biopsy result. "If we hadn't kept on about it, my Mum would have had her stomach out," Janette said yesterday.
She said they had been anxious about double-checking the diagnosis, as there was media coverage at that time of Meath man Alan O'Gorman, who sued St Vincent's hospital for removing his stomach in error. He was awarded €450,000 in damages.
A spokesman for the Mater said there would be no inquiry in this case, and claimed the Byrne family had received "repeated explanations of Mrs Byrne's programme of care". Furthermore, he said the hospital proceeded with a second biopsy itself on Mrs Byrne, and not at the family's insistence.
"The hospital's record of events differs significantly from the Byrne family's statement in numerous respects and the hospital rejects various allegations of wrongdoing," he said. He added that Mrs Byrne's was a "highly complex case".
Mrs Byrne stressed she just wants to find out how the initial misdiagnosis occurred and has no interest in compensation.