A mix-up over tissue samples at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin led to a young man being wrongly diagnosed with stomach cancer and to his stomach being removed, his lawyer told the High Court in Dublin yesterday.
When tissues samples were being analysed in the laboratory, the sample of a 70-year-old cancer patient was mixed up with 21-year-old Alan O'Gorman's, it was claimed. It was only after the operation, when Mr O'Gorman's stomach was analysed and found to show no evidence of cancer, that what a surgeon later described as "a terrible mistake" was realised, the young man's counsel, Mark de Blacam SC, said.
Mr O'Gorman (26), from Ratoath, Co Meath, told the court that after being told by a surgeon that it was very unusual to see stomach cancer in such a young person, he had asked before the operation whether there might be a mistake. He said the surgeon told him: 'We don't make those kind of mistakes here'.
Mr O'Gorman is suing a representative of St Vincent's hospital and six other defendants in an action for damages which opened yesterday and is due to last six weeks. The claims are denied.
Mr O'Gorman told the court he had intermittent stomach problems from 1999 and was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He said he collapsed at his desk at work on February 14th, 2002, and was brought by ambulance to St Vincent's.
His appendix was removed the following day and, after signs of a perforated gastric ulcer were noted, a tissue sample was taken and sent for analysis.
Mr de Blacam said his side were initially told the tissue sample had become mixed up with that of a cancer patient because a pathology registrar had pricked her finger with a sharp object in the laboratory and had left the laboratory for medical attention. Later, they were told the registrar had had to go to a prearranged meeting and this had led to the mix-up of the samples, he said.
A UK risk management expert would tell the court there was a "systems failure" at the hospital and that other tests should have been carried out to confirm the unusual diagnosis of cancer, he said.
Mr O'Gorman, the court was told, was angry and depressed after the loss of his stomach but has worked hard at trying to cope with it. It is claimed he will probably not be able to work full-time in the future. He can only eat small meals, cannot digest certain vitamins and minerals, tires easily and faces a higher risk of osteoporosis.
