SIXTEEN years ago she lay in hospital, convinced by Dr Michael Neary’s story
that his decision to remove her womb had saved her life. Only much later did
she discover that this was a lie.
Tonight, Marie Reaburn will be watching an RTE drama that tells the story of
how women who had their wombs removed unnecessarily by Neary battled the
system to win compensation for their mistreatment.
Yet Reaburn, as well as 34 other women who suffered at the hands of the
obstetrician, have not received a cent. Women aged 40 or over when Neary
removed their wombs were excluded from the compensation programme set up by
the state. Reaburn missed the deadline by just three days.
“I was 40 on February 3, 1992. I was admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital
[in Drogheda] a day later, and Michael Neary operated on me on [February] 6.
If the hospital had been able to find me a bed earlier, I would have
qualified for the scheme,” she said.
Reaburn is hoping that the two-part drama, which concludes tomorrow night,
will focus attention on the women who have yet to receive compensation and
force the government to include them in the scheme.
“I’ve seen the drama, and it ends on an upbeat note with women winning
compensation in court, but what about those of us still waiting? The redress
scheme isn’t ideal, but the women who did go through the courts found it
very stressful, with barristers haggling over the value of an ovary,” she
said.
Neary had diagnosed Reaburn with endometriosis six months before her
operation. The condition, where tissue grows outside the uterus, affects
between 5% and 10% of women. The surgeon told Reaburn that if he didn’t
perform a hysterectomy, she could die.
“I was shocked. I told him that I didn’t want my ovaries removed. I had no
pelvic pain, which is the usual symptom of endometriosis, but he said that
no other treatment would work. When I saw him again after the operation, he
told me he had saved my life. His actual words were: ‘If it wasn’t for me,
the maggots would have you by now,’” she said.
A review last year of Reaburn’s medical file by Professor John Bonner, a
consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, found that the woman, now 56, had
never suffered from endometriosis. “I had small cysts on my ovaries, a
completely normal and treatable condition. There was absolutely no reason to
remove my womb,” she said.
Reaburn, who lives outside Ardee in Co Louth, said she was “plunged into an
early menopause” after her “castration”.
“At first, Neary told me I couldn’t go on hormone replacement therapy [HRT]
and that I would just have to cope with the hot flushes. After about a year,
he eventually prescribed me very strong HRT medicine, which I took for 15
years. I found it very difficult to come off it,” she said.
Reaburn said she had never been given any reason why 40 was the cut-off point
for the redress scheme. “It seems completely random. All I can guess at is
that they decided that after 40 you’re not going to have much use for your
womb, so you don’t matter. But all the women having babies into their
mid-forties makes a mockery of that,” she said.
Last week , the Central Statistics Office reported that 3,059 women over 40
had babies last year. Reaburn has two children, both of whom were in their
teens at the time of her hysterectomy.
“Ironically, Michael Neary delivered them both. Despite all that has happened,
I feel blessed that I didn’t have a caesarean section delivery or he may
have performed a hysterectomy on me much earlier, and maybe prevented me
from having a second child,” she said.
During Neary’s time at Our Lady of Lourdes, between 1974 and 1998, the
caesarean hysterectomy rate was 10 times that of other maternity units. The
number of his victims is estimated at between 150 and 250.
The redress scheme, which has ruled on claims by about 150 women so far, used
a points scale to determine settlements, taking into account the age of the
women at the time of the operation, how many children they had and whether
their ovaries were removed.
The level of compensation was based around earlier settlements, including that
of Alison Gough who received more than €250,000 in damages from the High
Court for the unnecessary removal of her womb. About 15 women claimed
compensation through the courts before the scheme was introduced.
Cathriona Molloy of Patient Focus, a group representing victims of Neary, said
Reaburn’s case was compelling. “It’s one of about 35 rock solid cases. To
suggest that someone should get no compensation because they were three days
too old is obviously ridiculous,” she said.
Colm McGeehin, a solicitor who represented many of Neary’s victims, said the
35 women had been excluded from the scheme for budgetary reasons. “There is
no other explanation. Hopefully, the minister will look at it again because
they all have solid medical reports showing they were operated on
unnecessarily,” he said.
The Department of Health said that it was awaiting a final report from Judge
Maureen Harding Clark on the operation of the redress board and that no
decision had been made on the other claimants. The director of public
prosecutions has said that there is “insufficient evidence” to make a
criminal case against Neary.
Harding Clark’s 2006 report into the Neary scandal found that institutional
failures at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital prevented Neary’s unnecessary
hysterectomies from being detected. It also found that attempts had been
made to cover up the scandal, first revealed by a whistleblower.
The records of 44 patient records were stolen during the investigation and
others were altered to conceal the scale of Neary’s actions. Three
obstetricians initially cleared the surgeon of wrongdoing.
“It’s difficult to accept that we have got nothing and Neary is on a
€70,000-a-year pension,” Reaburn said.
Other dramas battling for justice
Stardust: An independently produced drama about the fire that gutted a
northside Dublin nightclub on Valentine’s Night, 1981 killing 48 and
injuring 241. Some bereaved families complained that they found out about
the film through the press rather than from RTE. The 2006 broadcast led to
renewed calls for a fresh independent inquiry into the tragic blaze — with
no result so far.
No Tears: The 2002 dramatisation of the Hepatitis C scandal focused on
the story of Grainne McFadden, a fictional character based on Bridget
McCole, who died in October 1996 days before her High Court action was due
to be heard. The four-part drama was criticised by McCole’s family, who said
they had never given the project their blessing.
Magdalene Sisters: Set in a Dublin convent between 1964 and 1968, Peter
Mullan’s film told the story of young girls detained in church-run laundries
living a life of servitude. It was condemned by the Vatican but won the
Golden Lion award at the Venice film festival.
Bloody Sunday: Paul Greengrass’s film appeared a week before another
film on the same subject made by Channel 4. His account of the 1972 shooting
dead of 13 civilians was told through the eyes of Ivan Cooper, a Protestant
member of the SDLP who was a central organiser of the tragic Derry march on
January 30, 1972.
Omagh: Made by RTE and Channel 4. Gerard McSorley plays Michael
Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aidan was killed in the bombing. Out of
respect to victims’ families, it was filmed in Navan, Co Meath.
and what, pray, is RTE?
peter c, Devizes, Wessex