THE State Claims Agency is to appeal a €2.1million award for damages made to terminally-ill mum Ruth Morrissey.
The cervical cancer campaigner and her husband Paul were granted the sum on May 3 in response to the misreading of smear tests and failure to inform the couple.
An SCA spokesman yesterday stressed its Supreme Court appeal centred on “a number of important legal points that may have significant implications for the State”.
However, the Health Minister told RTE he hoped the full award could be safeguarded.
Simon Harris said: “What I would like to see happen is to try and find a mechanism to protect Ms Morrissey’s interest from any appeal that may happen.
“She has been vindicated in the High Court in relation to her own case and no one should try to take that from her.”
The Morrisseys had sued the HSE, Quest Diagnostics and MedLab Pathology Limited after two smear tests were misread, in 2009 and 2012.
The laboratories had previously suggested they would challenge the judgment made in favour of the 37-year-old.
Minister Harris told The Week
In Politics: “I think it was always inevitable this ruling was going to be appealed and indeed the labs made that clear very early on.
“In relation to whether the State appeals or not, that’s not decided by pol-iticians or the Government or the Oireachtas. The SCA makes that decision.”
Ms Morrissey, from Limerick, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 after noticing “pink panther”-like blood after sex.
By the time she saw her GP the disease was so advanced the doctor could make out something on her cervix from a basic exam.
Last May, the mum of one found out she was among hundreds of women who were not informed earlier smear tests had been misread.
She said receiving the correct results in 2009 would have made “a significant difference” to her health.
