This article is from page 10 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE widow of a man who died from cancer despite having been treated by a Killaloe doctor told the court she was giving evidence “to prevent anyone else ever being introduced to this treatment”.
Bernadette Gallagher was in the witness box in the case against Pas- chal Carmody (60) of Ballycuggeran, Killaloe, who is charged with obtain- ing €80,172 from six cancer patients and their families by deception be- tween September 2001 and October
PAUL OPA
The patients were treated with pho- todynamic therapy (PDT) at The East Clinic, run by Dr Carmody and Dr Bill Porter.
Mrs Gallagher, from Mullingar, told the court that her husband JJ, died from bowel cancer on Septem- loys) ane a0 0a
She claimed that the doctor had said that not only would he hold the cancer at bay, but that he would “de- stroy it”.
Pat Marrinan, SC, for Carmody, put it to Mrs Gallagher that she was
“dragging Dr Carmody into every scenario” because Dr Porter had left the jurisdiction, leaving Dr Carmody as the only one who could be sued.
Mr Marrinan put it to her that Dr Carmody would give evidence deny- ing that he promised to cure or de- stroy her husband’s cancer.
Mrs Gallagher said that she had “nothing to lie about.
“IT am not enjoying this. My hus- band is dead and everyone else who had this treatment”.
She told the court in Ennis that she and her family were “ecstatic” when
they heard about the photodynamic therapy treatment. “I blame myself because I was standing outside it and I didn’t see this treatment was not suitable for JJ”.
Asked why they had not sought the opinion of other cancer experts treat- ing JJ, she said she “had not thought to do it”.
The court also heard evidence from Bernadette and JJ’s sons, who said they were in the room in the East Clinic when Dr Carmody had promised to “destroy” their father’s or ileoe
Tecwyn Gallagher said in evidence that he was in the room with the rest of his family and the two doc- tors when he was asked if he had any questions.
““T asked could they hold the cancer at bay – it’s the one question you want to ask. He said he would not only hold it at bay, he would destroy it.”
Mr Marrinan said his client would say he told the Gallaghers that the PDT treatment was still in its early stages and that it wasn’t a viable op- tion in JJ’s case but that he would re- view the matter after some months.