A MAN wrongly given the all-clear for breast cancer at Galway's University College Hospital a few years ago has now been unexpectedly told he will require major surgery following a review of tests carried out at the hospital.
The man received a letter from the hospital in recent days informing him of the review and the error. His family are shocked and devastated.
The patient, who remains anonymous, will now have to undergo a bilateral mastectomy.
Breast cancer occurs mainly in women, but men can get it. However, in men it is a rare disease.
The Health Service Executive, when asked about the review which uncovered the mistake, said yesterday it could not comment on individual patient cases. Neither would it say if the error had been picked up during its recent review of the work of a pathologist who worked at the hospital in 2004.
The details of that review were announced by the HSE West in July. It said at that time that it was reviewing the work of a pathologist who was employed at UCHG in February and March 2004 after information was passed to it about the doctor by colleagues in Britain.
It said the pathologist had his registration suspended for professional related issues by the British General Medical Council in September 2007 for 18 months.
It indicated it had sought a second opinion on diagnostic tests and diagnostic reports carried out by this pathologist during the period of his employment at UCHG. "This process is now complete and patients requiring further follow-up identified," it said in July. It would not disclose how many patients required follow-up.
The case of the man now diagnosed with breast cancer may well have been part of this review, given that he attended UCHG for tests about four years ago, but the HSE would not confirm this. If he is not part of it, then another undisclosed review of work at the hospital is ongoing.
It is understood the report of the review of the work of the pathologist who worked at the hospital in 2004 is now in draft form and may be published by the years end.
Meanwhile, the consultant radiologist who read the chest X-ray performed on the late Ann Moriarty at Ennis General Hospital in June 2007 and allegedly missed the fact she had breast cancer has defended himself in an e-mail to Minister for Health Mary Harney.
In the correspondence, Dr Martin Schranz, currently radiology network director for the northeast, states that his report of Ms Moriarty's chest X-ray noted it was "grossly abnormal" with a large shadow in the left lung.
It is not clear if he identified in his report that this shadow was likely to be indicative of cancer and therefore requiring follow-up, or if in fact it was up to others to automatically follow up on the "shadow" he found.
Ms Moriarty (53) died of breast cancer in April within months of being twice told by Ennis hospital that chest X-rays on her did not show cancer.
The Health Information and Quality Authority has now begun an investigation into patient safety at Ennis hospital. Asked about Dr Schranz's e-mail, the HSE said yesterday it would be providing all information it had to the HIQA.