Woman describes her anguish over mother's illness

By FRANCESCA MOLD and FIONA BARBER

A young woman whose mother died of cervical cancer after several smear slides were misread has told an inquiry of her anguish over "terrible errors" which might have contributed to her death.

The woman, whose identity was suppressed, told of her struggle to cope upon learning her mother might die and how it pushed her into taking an overdose of morphine.

Her mother was diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer in 1997 and died two years later.

She had three cervical smears read by former Gisborne pathologist Michael Bottrill in 1988, 1991 and 1993. He reported all three as normal.

The woman's GP told her in late 1998 that those "normal" smears were actually abnormal.

Two of the smears were sent to a Sydney laboratory last year to determine whether Dr Bottrill had been reading slides accurately. They were found to contain abnormalities.

The mother also had a smear read in 1996 by Tairawhiti Healthcare's laboratory, which called for a repeat smear in six months because there was a "scant" number of cells. This slide was later re-read by a pathologist who detected abnormalities.

The young woman told the inquiry her mother could not understand how she had developed cervical cancer when her smears had been reported as normal.

"Mum thought it ironic that she had cervical cancer when she had been so careful about always having regular smears."

Her mother began feeling unwell in 1995 and complained of pain in her lower abdomen and back for most of the next year.

"It was very difficult for us to watch our mother go through so much pain and torment. Mum was determined that she would beat the cancer and had a number of operations which were painful for her."

The woman said she felt let down by the health system.

"Life is very different for us now. It does not seem right or fair. My mother was a woman who did everything that was asked of her by the health system ... She should never have died."

She said the family had received virtually no support from any source since her mother's death.

"I hope that by giving evidence today the committee can learn from the terrible errors ... that caused my mother to die from this disease."

After hearing from the woman, panel chairwoman Ailsa Duffy, QC, questioned the weight the inquiry team could place on her evidence in light of questions raised about the validity of the Sydney re-reading.

She said the evidence simply showed that Dr Bottrill had read the slides one way, and the Sydney laboratory another.

Ms Duffy said the smear read by Tairawhiti Healthcare also clouded the issue. She said looking at the evidence further could be like "opening Pandora's box." However, she agreed to accept it into the record.

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