UHG apologises to woman over missed cancer diagnosis

University Hospital Galway has apologised to a woman who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2023 after a number of scans were allegedly misinterpreted.

Mary Keane, from Co Mayo, had been attending neurologists at the hospital with headaches dating back to 2009.

She was reassured that the headaches were connected to bruising from an old head injury from an event which happened in 2005.

However, she continued to suffer chronic headaches to the extent that she could not work.

Despite multiple attendances to the hospital's Neurology Department she was primarily treated with painkillers.

Her condition deteriorated and significantly worsened in late 2022. In early 2023, she eventually underwent a CT and MRI which found a lesion on the frontal lobe of her brain.

She was referred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and diagnosed with a high-grade aggressive brain tumour.

At that stage it was inoperable due to its size, location and associated risks of surgery.

At the Four Courts this morning, the hospital apologised for the deficiencies in care in 2013 and 2016 which it said led to the delay in diagnosis of her brain tumour.

In a letter the hospital said it wished to acknowledge the upset and distress this had caused.

Medical experts instructed on behalf of Ms Keane’s case identified that there were three missed opportunities to diagnose the tumour.

They found that her scans done in 2012, 2013, and 2016 were all mis-reported.

The experts said that due to the abnormalities, Ms Keane should have been referred to a neurosurgeon for review and in order to assess the possibility of surgery.

They claimed that had Ms Keane been referred on any of those dates, she would have had the option of resection surgery.

When her tumour was finally diagnosed in 2023, surgery was no longer an option as the tumour had grown too big.

The experts said they were strongly of the view that the failure to read and interpret the scans correctly had cost Ms Keane at least five years of life and a missed opportunity for surgery.

The case went to mediation and settled in July.