A RETIRED surgeon who removed a cancerous tumour from a patient’s bowel in 2007, told the man’s inquest that he would have “acted very differently” in his post-surgical assessment of the patient had he been aware of imaging from a CT scan.
A 2012 inquest into the death of Mike Daly Snr, of Lee Estate, Limerick City, found he died of cardiac failure due to natural causes at Milford Hospice on April 7, 2010.
However, in what is believed to be a first in the State’s history, a second inquest which was agreed in 2016, is continuing before Limerick Coroner’s Court in Kilmallock
In his evidence to the court, Dr Raphael Keane said he had had not seen the scan’s imaging, but he had read the radiologist’s report, which did not suggest a recurrence of cancer in Mr Daly.
The radiologist‘s notes suggested that the case be discussed at a multi-disciplinary meeting, however Dr Keane said he did not pursue this suggestion as he saw nothing in the report which would have prompted him to raise it at such a meeting.
An independent expert who examined the imaging in the scan, which was found by the Daly family in Mr Daly’s medical records, noted what they believed to be suspicious imaging, but Dr Keane said this was never highlighted to him.
He said if he had seen this, his actions would have been different and he would have carried out a defunctioning colostomy much earlier than he did, perhaps even 18 months sooner.
“I was very upset to hear that was on the scan. There was no mention of it. If I knew that, I would have acted very differently,” Dr Keane said.
Dr Keane told the inquest he had been satisfied that from his knowledge of the case and tests and procedures he performed on Mr Daly that his cancer had not recurred or spread.
