Cancer victim's dying wish honoured at Inquiry

By FIONA BARBER

Just before invasive cancer delivered its final and fatal blow to Kathleen Wahine Tahore Ward, she made one thing clear - the suppression order that protected her identity should be lifted.

On the day that the Gisborne Cervical Cancer Inquiry reconvened, the wish of the woman known as "Midge" was carried out.

Mrs Ward, who died two days after her 54th birthday, was one of the witnesses whose testimonies visibly rocked those attending the opening sessions of the inquiry in May.

Diminutive and frail, she had struggled to walk the long aisle to the witness box and her submissions had to be read by one of her lawyers, Vicky Anderson.

At the time, Mrs Ward had requested name suppression.

Yesterday, her death on June 13 was marked by the lifting of the suppression and by a song and farewell.

"Together we will ensure that this will never happen again," said Mrs Anderson, who along with her legal team's cultural adviser, Pare Nia Nia, read a tribute.

According to her evidence, Mrs Ward, the mother of five adult children, had two smears taken in the mid-1990s - one by Dr Michael Bottrill and the other by a Gisborne Hospital pathologist, Dr Alan Padwell.

In 1995, Dr Bottrill reported that her slide had blood present but that it was normal. It was later reread by two laboratories which picked up cell abnormalities.

A year later, the hospital pathologist reported that a slide had been blood-stained but no abnormalities were seen. A rereading by another laboratory ruled that the specimen was unsatisfactory.

All the while, precancerous cells were staking their claim on her body.

By early last year, it was clear to Mrs Ward that something was amiss.

"I believe it was the end of March 1999 that I went to see my doctor because I had pain in my pelvis and legs," she told the inquiry in May.

"This pain just would not go away. I felt very run down and ill. I was going to the toilet a lot."

She was referred for tests, which showed she had anaemia.

"I went to the Well Women's Clinic for a smear on July 14, 1999. By this time I was bleeding heavily all the time and I knew something was very wrong.

"The nurse was unable to obtain a smear."

Mrs Ward was referred by her general practitioner to gynaecologist Dr Diane Van de Mark, who took a biopsy and arranged to have her slides reread.

Soon after it was confirmed that Mrs Ward had cancer of the cervix.

"I saw Dr Van de Mark on September 2, 1999, for another biopsy," Mrs Ward told the inquiry.

She was told by Dr Van de Mark that the 1995 slide had been misread and that early detection and treatment could have prevented invasive cancer.

"At that time we were still waiting for the reread of the 1996 smear."

Mrs Ward went on to have radiotherapy at Palmerston North Hospital, where it was discovered that there were two further tumours - one on her bladder and one on her bowel.

After treatment it was hoped that the cancer had been contained, but in February she was sent to the emergency department at Gisborne Hospital.

In March, she was admitted to Gisborne Hospital for an operation to bring her colon out through her stomach.

"I now have a colostomy bag."

Concluding her evidence, Mrs Ward said she had two smears misread.

Her predicament was not solely Dr Bottrill's fault. It was, she said, also the fault of the health system.

"I now have a [coloscopy] bag that I have to clean and empty out. It just gets too much, but I suppose when I get used to it, it will be all right."

In the end, Mrs Ward did not have the chance to find out.

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