{"id":663509,"date":"2026-10-23T22:46:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/663509\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T22:46:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:46:31","slug":"woman-28-with-stage-4-cancer-awarded-large-sum-after-radiologist-misread-scan-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/663509\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman (28) with stage 4 cancer awarded large sum after radiologist misread scan \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 28-year-old woman with stage 4 cancer<\/a> has received a significant monetary settlement from the HSE<\/a> after a scan was misread by a radiologist at University Hospital Galway (UHG) in 2023, delaying her diagnosis.<\/p>\n

The HSE and UHG have apologised \u201cunreservedly\u201d to Michelle Craughwell \u201cfor the deficiencies in radiology care\u201d that led to a delay in diagnosing her with adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. <\/p>\n

The case was mediated last week. The compensation covers medical fees, counselling and loss of earnings. <\/p>\n

Jonathan Kilfeather, instructed by Damien Tansey Solicitors, told the High Court<\/a> on Wednesday that if the scan had been \u201cread correctly\u201d in 2023, Craughwell would have \u201ca significantly longer life expectancy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the tumour wasn\u2019t spotted until two years later, at which stage it had become stage 4.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kilfeather told the court Craughwell\u2019s prognosis is \u201cbleak\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oonah McCrann, representing the HSE, read out an apology on behalf of Chris Kane, general manager of Galway University Hospitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to sincerely and unreservedly apologise for the deficiencies in radiology care in 2023 which led to the delay in diagnosis of your adrenal cortical carcinoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish to acknowledge the upset and distress that this has caused you, and we do not underestimate the challenges that you are facing. We deeply regret this and offer you our sincere apologies.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hospital apologises to woman who had to have a mastectomy when seven months pregnantOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Judge Paul Coffey sympathised with Craughwell and her parents, Fiona O\u2019Toole and Cyril Craughwell, who were present in court. <\/p>\n

Speaking after the hearing, Michelle Craughwell said she was \u201creally grateful\u201d for the apology but disappointed at how her case had been handled. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really disappointed that it wasn\u2019t picked up in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she and her family \u201chad to go through all this turmoil for something that could have been an easy fix at the very beginning\u201d.<\/p>\n

Solicitor Damien Tansey said that if the tumour had been detected three years ago, \u201cthe outcome would have been totally different\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said UHG is a centre of excellence, and Craughwell should have received a higher standard of care.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I said I had a headache every day\u2019: Hospital apologises for Mayo woman\u2019s brain tumour diagnosis delaysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Craughwell, who lives in Tuam, Co Galway<\/a>, had a history of persistent kidney infections with two prior hospitalisations at UHG in 2019 and 2022, according to documents filed in the case. <\/p>\n

On July 16th, 2023, Craughwell presented to the emergency department (ED) at UHG with urinary problems and pain. She had a computed tomography (CT) scan of her abdomen and pelvis. An adrenal mass measuring approximately 2.3cm was missed on the scan, according to the statement of claim.<\/p>\n

At this time, Craughwell had stage 1 cancer and the mass was confined to her right-side adrenal gland. As the mass was missed on the scan, no treatment plan was devised. <\/p>\n

On June 17th, 2025, she attended her GP with symptoms of a fever and an upper respiratory tract infection. Her GP referred her to the ED, believing she may have had sepsis.<\/p>\n

A CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis was carried out on June 19th, and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan occurred the next day, confirming the presence of the adrenal mass. <\/p>\n

In July 2023, the tumour measured about 2.5cm in diameter, court documents noted. By June 2025, the tumour measured about 10cm in diameter and the cancer had progressed to stage 4.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0At 49 I was a mum, a wife, a runner and constantly tired. Then one day I collapsed at workOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In August 2025, she underwent surgery at St Vincent\u2019s University Hospital in Dublin and required significantly more surgery than she would have needed in 2023. She also required chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

Treatment of her condition is \u201congoing\u201d, according to court documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 28-year-old woman with stage 4 cancer has received a significant monetary settlement from the HSE after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[258,119997,103,73,2120,61,60],"class_list":["post-663509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-galway-university-hospitals","tag-health","tag-high-court","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}