Case Study: April 2022
In December 2021, High Court proceedings were issued on behalf of our client a 42 year old financial analyst and his partner against the Health Service Executive (HSE) and two GPs. Our client first presented to St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, in February 2021 with black stools, abdominal pain and collapse episodes. Despite these red-flag symptoms and a positive stool test for blood, he was discharged without undergoing endoscopy or gastroscopy, and crucial test results were never communicated to him or his GP.
Over the following months, he repeatedly sought medical help at his GP practice but was not referred for urgent investigations. When he eventually underwent a gastroscopy in August 2021, a 30mm bleeding gastric tumour was discovered. By then, the cancer had advanced to Stage T3N3 with peritoneal metastases and was deemed inoperable.
We argued negligence in failing to investigate, diagnose and treat the cancer in a timely manner, depriving our client of the opportunity for a cure. The proceedings were defended on the basis that the cancer was already quite advanced at the time of the failure and ultimately the case settled within 5 months of commencement for €500,000