Cervical cancer patient passes away before legal case is heard

A woman has died following a battle with cervical cancer before she could take her case to court for a legal hearing.

The woman allegedly had two cervical smear samples misread and has sadly died before she could take action against the HSE. The High Court was informed last week that the unidentified woman was only days away from passing, with her lawyers pleading for her case to be settled before her death, The Irish Independent has reported. Following her death, those she was taking legal action against will now not have to pay many of the damages, even if she does prove to be successful with her claims. The woman was taking action against the HSE, laboratory Eurofins Biomnis Ireland and US laboratory CPL and was due to be heard next month, BreakingNews has also reported. [caption id="attachment_582337" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Credit: Getty Images[/caption] The woman had claimed that if her smear tests, which were taken in February or August of 2010, had been analysed accurately, she would not have needed curative surgery and her invasive cervical cancer would not have developed. Due to this, she underwent treatment with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and brachytherapy and in October last year, she was diagnosed with widespread metastatic disease. Following the death of Vicky Phelan last year, and after her High Court action in 2018, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that no woman who was affected by the CervicalCheck screening scandal would need to go to court. He noted that the State would be taking over each woman's case and would be seeking settlements by mediation and they would pursue the labs for damages, aiming for no trial to be needed.

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