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Vicky Phelan starts new podcast about legal battle and ongoing cancer treatment in the US.

8/5/2021

Cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has started a new podcast with her solicitor about her legal battle and ongoing treatment.
Ms Phelan said today on Twitter that she was “delighted” to launch her new podcast with solicitor Cian O’Carroll, In conversation with Vicky Phelan.

Mr O’Carroll released a short video synopsis of what the podcast will cover, saying: “Back in 2018, I met Vicky Phelan when she was looking for a solicitor to help her fight her case.

Read full article on Independent.ie.

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'I didn't think I'd be here three years later, still fighting': Vicky Phelan on her court case.

5/5/2021

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Read article in the Irish Examiner.
The cervical cancer campaigner takes a look at the CervicalCheck scandal in podcast with solicitor Cian O'Carroll in part two of 'In Conversation with Vicky Phelan'
The second episode of a new podcast series from Cian O’Carroll Solicitors, In Conversation with Vicky Phelan, sees the campaigner delve into her legal battle following incorrect smear test results.
Speaking over Zoom with O'Carroll, her legal representative, the pair give an overview of events leading up to the 2018 judgement - and the very real lessons they learned along the way.
They share their accrued knowledge on how to take a court case against institutional issues like the CervicalCheck scandal, and answer the frequently asked questions of the case.
Devastating news
"In January of 2018, I'd just been diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. Three months previously, I had a sit-down with my gynaecologist, who had wanted to have a chat with me about an audit that had taken place in CervicalCheck," says Phelan.
"It came out of nowhere, and at a time when I didn't know my cancer was back... I was happy to park it at the time because I was happy to be cancer-free.
"But while I was waiting for a biopsy in a treatment room, bored off my head, I looked through my file and found a report about my file. I knew there was more to this audit than what I was told. I knew there was a chance I could have been misdiagnosed, and I sought legal representation.
"I never thought three years later that it'd set off one of the largest legal scandals in the history of the State."

Screenings
O'Carroll and Phelan set out an overview of the rollout of the CervicalCheck system in the wake of a backlog of cases in the 2000s. The backlog led to a tender for outsourced lab work, landed by a US firm.
They explain the resultant issues, including slides being further outsourced to secondary labs, before getting into Phelan's case.
"The advantage of being the first case is that the HSE didn't know what was coming," says Phelan. "We got documents that, had they known what was coming, they wouldn't have released.
"They were confident I'd sign a non-disclosure agreement - they weren't banking on me being as bolshy and as stubborn as I am."
"The day I stood on those court steps, reading that statement, I didn't think I'd be here three years later, still fighting for answers for women, and myself, and to improve outcomes."
Composure
The immediate aftermath of the court case - including the headline-grabbing €2.5m settlement - is highlighted.
Phelan speaks about the importance she knew her words carried. Preparation for interviews was all-important, but so too was an even keel, she says.
"I had to be measured. It was a very difficult balancing act for me, because I could have [gone on the air] and slammed the whole health service, told women not to go get their smears, but I didn't, because I knew women would listen to me, and not get their smears.
"I know how bad this cancer is, and there's no cure for it, so I didn't want more women being diagnosed, I want less, in fact.
"It was all about exposing the harm, and working with them to improve the system."

Elsewhere in the podcast, Phelan and O'Carroll discuss the Scally Report, which found that 90% of the country's cervical tests had been outsourced to labs that hadn't been inspected since 2014.

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Husband sues for surrogacy costs after wife’s death from cervical cancer.

3/3/2021

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Padraig Creaven wants to honour the wish of his late wife Aoife to have a child, court told.
A husband is claiming the costs of surrogacy in a High Court action following the death of his wife from cervical cancer.
Padraig Creaven wants to honour the wish of himself and his late wife Aoife to have a child, the court heard.
His case against the HSE, three laboratories and a hospital centres on alleged misinterpretation of his wife’s cervical smear in 2011 taken under the CervicalCheck national screening programme. All the claims are denied.
Aoife Mitchell Creaven was about 20 weeks pregnant through IVF in 2014 when she found out she had terminal cervical cancer and her life expectancy was limited. She had to travel to London to have the much-wanted pregnancy terminated as chemotherapy was the only option.
The couple had “the most extraordinary and difficult dilemma” and the “necessary course of action was to terminate the pregnancy”, Jeremy Maher SC, for Mr Creaven, said.
Ms Mitchell Creaven died on April 20th 2015, aged 40, weighing just five stone. Her husband was left alone, with no child, a widower at 44, and her death had a devastating effect on him, counsel said.
Mr Maher SC, with Ciara McGoldrick BL, instructed by solicitor Cian O’Carroll, said the cost of surrogacy is part of Mr Creaven’s claim.
Ms Mitchell Creaven, from Menlo, Galway found out in November 2013 she and her husband were to become parents after years of IVF treatment and they were “deliriously happy”, counsel said. Their joy after several unsuccessful IVF attempts was short lived when Ms Mitchell Creaven found out she had terminal cervical cancer after discovering a lump on her neck in January 2014.
ChemotherapyThey had to tell Aoife’s parents, Gabriel and Marcella Mitchell, of her pregnancy and that she was dying and her father collapsed on the floor on hearing the news.
Surgery was not an option, chemotherapy was necessary and there was great concern about delay in treatment and in relation to the pregnancy.

Read Irish Times article.

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Tipperary hospital apologises for failings in care of man during seven-hour operation.

29/1/2021

Cian O'Carroll Solicitors brought this medical negligence action to a successful conclusion with a major settlement of damages together with an admission of liability and a public apology.South Tipperary General Hospital has apologised in the High Court for the failings in care to a 46-year-old man who went in to hospital for a two-hour procedure which ended up taking almost seven hours.
Plumber Niall Corcoran ended up with leg problems after the operation in December 2017.
His Counsel Jeremy Maher SC, instructed by solicitor Cian O’Carroll, told the High Court today Mr Corcoran had suffered “a traumatic life-changing experience“ after the surgery went on for so long.
In a letter of apology which was read to the court during a remote ruling, the hospital general manager said the hospital would like to express an unreserved apology to Mr Corcoran for the failings in his care at the hospital on December 8, 2017.
“We understand that this apology cannot negate the adverse effect of the surgery on your life and we are truly sorry for the pain and distress this has caused you,” the letter added.
The apology was read out as Mr Corcoran settled his High Court action against the HSE. The details of the settlement which came about after mediation are confidential.
Read the Irish Examiner court report HERE.