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Man's Stomach Removed After Hospital Mix-up, Court Told

A mix-up over tissue samples at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin led to a young man being wrongly diagnosed with stomach cancer and to his stomach being removed, his lawyer told the High Court in Dublin yesterday.

When tissues samples were being analysed in the laboratory, the sample of a 70-year-old cancer patient was mixed up with 21-year-old Alan O'Gorman's, it was claimed. It was only after the operation, when Mr O'Gorman's stomach was analysed and found to show no evidence of cancer, that what a surgeon later described as "a terrible mistake" was realised, the young man's counsel, Mark de Blacam SC, said.

Mr O'Gorman (26), from Ratoath, Co Meath, told the court that after being told by a surgeon that it was very unusual to see stomach cancer in such a young person, he had asked before the operation whether there might be a mistake. He said the surgeon told him: 'We don't make those kind of mistakes here'.

Mr O'Gorman is suing a representative of St Vincent's hospital and six other defendants in an action for damages which opened yesterday and is due to last six weeks. The claims are denied.

Mr O'Gorman, the court was told, was angry and depressed after the loss of his stomach but has worked hard at trying to cope with it.

"The claims are denied"???? I can hear the arguments now, like something out of Monty Python: "But I haven't got a stomach! I had one when I checked in, now it's gone!" "Yes you have. It's only a flesh wound."

UPDATE, 10/25/06: "A man is to receive 450,000 Euros in damages after his stomach was removed as a result of an incorrect diagnosis of stomach cancer, arising from a mix-up between his tissue sample and that of a 70-year-old cancer patient. The issue of who is liable for the damages to be paid to Alan O'Gorman (26), arising from the operation at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin four years ago, has yet to be decided." -Eircom