A woman with both breast and cervical cancer recently waived her anonymity to launch her late cancer diagnosis claims in an Irish High Court.

Plaintiff Ruth M. recently filed her late cancer diagnosis claims in an Irish High Court, claiming that two false negative pap smear results caused her to develop late-stage cervical cancer along with breast cancer. Ruth’s allegedly false negative pap smear results were part of the CervicalCheck screening program.

The CervicalCheck program offers free pap smears to women between the ages of 25 and 60. However, a recent audit has shown that 221 women have possibly received a false negative result within the last 10 years. 12 of the women have been identified, and the other 209 are currently being identified and contacted. Although the Irish National Cancer Screening Service has attempted to be transparent about the issue, many women are outraged with the situation and fearful about their health.

Ruth, who was the victim of not one but two false negative pap smears, claims she was not told about her results as soon as the reviews were carried out. Her first pap smear was tested in 2009 by Quest Diagnostics, a laboratory in the Untied States. Her second pap smear was tested in 2012 by the Medlab Dublin laboratory.

In 2014, after complaining of bleeding to her general practitioner, Ruth says she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was treated. That same year, Ruth’s previous pap smear results were allegedly reviewed and found to be incorrect, meaning she was given two false negative pap smear results. However, it was not until 2016 that the results of the review were given to Ruth’s doctor.

In 2017, Ruth complained to her doctor of lower back pain and an MRI confirmed cervical cancer reoccurrence in February. In March, she was also diagnosed with breast cancer. In May, Ruth was finally informed of the results of her review, almost four years after the review was initiated.

“[Ruth] said when she got a call to tell her that she was one of the women whose smear tests had been the subject of a review, her heart sank. She said this was the third blow. The first blow was the cervical cancer and the breast cancer was the second blow,” the Irish Examiner reported.

Ruth has filed her late cancer diagnosis claims in High Court, alleging that correct pap smear results may have helped her doctors catch her cancer early. Had her cervical cancer be caught and treated early into development, Ruth claims that she would likely not have had a remission and that the cancer would not have spread to her breast.

Both in Ireland and the United States, women such as Ruth are grappling with the very real possibility that their negative pap smear results may not be accurate. These women may be eligible to file a lawsuit against the laboratories who returned false negatives or the doctors who performed the test. Although many false negatives are due to human error, some late cancer diagnosis claims suggest that negligence plays a part. If you or a loved one received a false negative pap smear result, you may be eligible to take your late cancer diagnosis claims to court and seek compensation.