The HSE Must Proactively Reach-out to UHG Scan Patients - Don’t Delay

On Tuesday night I watched Mary Keane tell her heart-breaking story on RTE’s Prime Time. Mary is now 49 years old and from Westport. Back in 2005, while on a night out, she was brutally assaulted. She received several blows to the head, and an x-ray revealed some mild traumatic brain injury. In the wake of this attack she started getting terrible headaches — that painkillers couldn’t relieve. In her own words, Mary was “up and down” to Galway (University Hospital Galway) the whole time trying to find out what was wrong, but was repeatedly told everything was fine.

In 2012, her first brain scan revealed a shaded area on her brain near the front of her head. She was told this was an old injury, from the 2005 attack, and she didn’t need to worry about it. Her headaches got more and more severe. The only treatment she was offered was medication. Some of it didn’t agree with her. Some did work — for a while.

The headaches came back, worse than ever, and Mary had another brain scan in 2013. Again, she was told that all they revealed was the old injury, which hadn’t changed, and that everything was fine.

Mary felt she wasn’t taken seriously — or believed — by doctors. In another interview she says how she felt they thought she faking her symptoms.

Mary went for a third brain scan in 2016, as the severity of her headaches kept increasing, and again she was told everything was fine, leaving her with no clue as to how she was going to get better — because apparently everything was fine. Apart from her severe headaches.

“What were doctors saying to you?”

Sarah McInerney

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“Oh, you’re fine. Go home. I see the wedge there. Go home. And it hasn’t changed since the last time.”

Mary Keane

The lack of care provided to Mary is really shocking. I think the sorts of snap judgements made by many healthcare professionals about a patient’s character can seriously impact how effective a treatment that patient receives. — But honestly, if that was the only issue with Mary’s care I probably wouldn’t be writing this blogpost — because I’m not sure how we can address that, as unfortunately snap judgements are part and parcel of the diagnostic process, I think. I’m not saying this issue can’t be addressed. But I am saying, it’s too complicated for me to try tackling it here.

But Mary’s story shows there was a definite problem with how her scans were read. And it’s very hard to imagine that other people haven’t been affected by this issue.

What happened to Mary Keane?

Her headaches kept getting worse and worse, until she temporarily lost her vision one day while working on the farm. An ambulance was called and this time she went to the hospital in Castlebar (Mayo University Hospital). They scanned her brain and told her to bring her family to the hospital. Finally, it was recognized that the “wedge” was a brain tumor. Tragically, because it had been left unchecked for over a decade, it had grown so much that by this time it was an inoperable, terminal Grade 4 cancer.

It’s absolutely awful. I’m praying for her that she gets on some drug trial that will shrink the mass right down. And you never know — every month I hear about some new medical advancement. Please God a cure will be found for Mary.

The thing that really shocked me though was when Carmel Keane, Mary’s sister, carer and companion, revealed that when she brought Mary for another scan in Galway in September 2025, they were told Mary was now cancer free! She wasn’t. The scan had been misread. Again.

I think it would be a mistake to treat Mary Keane’s misdiagnosis as an isolated incident. It hints at a possible historic and ongoing issue with how scans are interpreted and reported at UHG. And we need to know who else is currently sitting at home with an “everything is fine” scan result, while their symptoms increase and worsen to terrible effect.

Has anyone else had a scan misinterpreted?

I do not know how closely related these cases are. But in October of this year, UHG apologised unreservedly to Michelle Craughwell, a 28 year old woman, for the two-year delay in the diagnosis of an adrenal gland cancer. By the time it was finally caught, it had advanced to Stage 4.

I don’t know what treatment options are available to Michelle but I’m praying they’ll be fully successful.

UHG is too good a hospital for the HSE to not fully follow-up on this

So everything about Mary’s story is shocking, but it is especially shocking to hear this about UHG which is a fine and vital hospital. The hospital is the tertiary referral centre, offering the highest level of specialised care, for the entire West of Ireland. It’s staffed by hundreds of brilliant, compassionate, and deeply dedicated doctors, nurses, and technicians. The hardworking frontline staff at UHG are undoubtedly just as horrified and devastated by these reporting failures as we all are.

Follow-up with a Proactive HSE Communications Triage Team

We must not wait for the next tragedy to come to light. The HSE needs to establish a dedicated, communications team to contact every single patient who had a radiology scan at UHG over the last five years that was reported as fine or clear.

This wouldn’t require a blind, mass-rescanning of tens of thousands of people. Instead, it should be a targeted, safety-netting triage system:

• Direct Outreach: A specialised team contacts past patients directly via letter, phone, or secure portal.
• Public Helpline & Ad Campaign: Alongside direct outreach, there should be a public advertisement campaign featuring a dedicated phone number. Any former or current UHG patient worried about their past clear scan can call this line directly, allowing the team to run through the exact same triage questions with them immediately.
• Symptom Verification: Patients are asked a simple, set of questions — Have you experienced ongoing, unresolved, or worsening symptoms since your scan? Are your headaches, abdominal pain, vision issues, or neurological symptoms still present?
• Fast-Tracked Review: Any patient who answers “yes” is immediately flagged. Their historic scans should then be reviewed by a radiologist from another tertiary referral centre in the country, and if necessary, the patient then is fast-tracked for an immediate repeat scan.

I’m not a medical professional, so I don’t know how helpful my suggestions there are. But definitely people must be contacted. There must be some follow-up to check on patients

The best case scenario is that we find out that the follow-up investigation was unnecessary. It would mean most scans have been read correctly and no one else has erroneously received the all-clear. That is the best thing we could discover — for patients, and for UHG and all its brilliant staff.

As for the worst case scenario … all I can say is, I’m so glad that Mary and Michelle had the wherewithal and the support necessary to keep pushing for answers. Hopefully the right treatment can still be found for them both.

But people with less support might just give up — they won’t have kept pushing when a consultant tells them they’re fine. And if there are those who think such people aren’t worth the money of a proactive reach-out and follow-up, then please realise that what you are really saying is that not everyone deserves a proper diagnosis. And why on Earth would anyone say that?