The Health Service Executive has issued an apology to the family of John McNeive and settled a claim for delayed cancer diagnosis compensation following his death from neck cancer in August 2005.
John (59) from Ballindine, County Mayo, had started to experience headaches in 2003 and was referred to University College Hospital in Galway for tests. He was examined by a neurologist and, when a swelling later developed on his face, was sent for a CT scan at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.
Despite the scan showing a malignant tumour, neither a biopsy nor a follow-up appointment were organised, and it was not until April 2005 that John was diagnosed with neck cancer. John died in a County Mayo hospice just four months later.
John´s family made a claim for delayed cancer diagnosis compensation against the Health Service Executive, claiming personal injury compensation for the mental stress that the delayed cancer diagnosis had caused.
At the High Court in Dublin, Mr Justice John Quirke heard that the family and Health Service Executive had reached an agreement on a delayed cancer diagnosis settlement of 102,000 Euros – one which he approved while offering his sympathy to John´s widow Eileen and other members of the McNeive family who were in attendance.