Wexford General Hospital. Pic: Jim Campbell

A 73-YEAR-OLD local man was one of 13 people whose cancer was missed during a round of colonoscopies carried out in Wexford General Hospital in March 2013, a report has confirmed.

Pat Fitzpatrick was among the 600 plus patients who was called to have a second colonoscopy in March 2015, after Wexford General Hospital became concerned about screenings carried out by one particular consultant at the hospital.

Prior to this, he had presented at the hospital with symptoms and was told, after a 15-hour wait in the Accident and Emergency Department to go back to his doctor and ‘go home and drink a Guinness’.

His daughter Dee Fitzpatrick welcomed the latest report, which confirmed that 13 cancers, including her father’s, had been missed in the initial 2013 colonoscopies. She acknowledged the hospital’s genuine remorse and apology over the matter.

But she said that the family, since February 2015, had experienced turmoil as a result of what had happened and remarked that, even now, they find themselves wondering if things would be different and asking ‘what if?’

Mr. Fitzpatrick, a retired painter/decorator, has since been “fighting an phenomenal fight”, having overcome a partial lung removal, septic shock, almost two months in intensive care in the Mater, radiation therapy, eight rounds of chemotherapy, four episodes of pneumonia and three cardiac arrests as well as now fighting cancer in his brain.

The consultant who screened the 13 patients has been on leave since 2015 and it is understood that he does not accept the findings of the review. The matter has been referred on to the Irish Medical Council and a further review is to be carried out by an independent body.