A CONSULTANT radiologist accused of professional misconduct conveyed “quite accurately” the findings of an MRI scan on a man (23) who later died of brain damage, the Medical Council Fitness to Practise Committee heard in Dublin yesterday.
Dr John Hanson (40), from Malahide, Co Dublin, is facing nine accusations of professional misconduct.
Mark Haran, a DIT business graduate, from Moorechurch, Julianstown, Co Meath, died at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin on April 4th, 2008.
Expert witness Dr Catriona Good, senior lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said her interpretation of an MRI scan carried out by Dr Hanson at Our Lady’s in Drogheda on March 24th, 2008, found “no convincing evidence of acute raised intracranial pressure”.
She said the scan indicated moderate swelling in brain ventricles but she found no evidence of a medical emergency.
While Dr Good said it was common for radiologists to have a clinical discussion with someone more senior after diagnosing water on the brain, she said she saw “no urgency” in this case.
“Ideally they would have discussed that but there was no clinical emergency at this stage which would have stimulated an urgent referral to a neurological team.”
To produce a timely report “would have been gold standard”, she said. But, “by the very nature of our jobs that is not always possible”.
Mr Haran was discharged on March 28th and was readmitted on April 2nd with severe headache and vomiting. When his file was examined, the report for the MRI scan taken in March was not in it. Dr Hanson had not written it up and was too busy to deal with the matter as he was about to perform a procedure on another patient.
An urgent CT scan showed Mr Haran had acute hydrocephalus. He was taken to Beaumont Hospital where he died later that day.
The hearing will continue at 9am on January 13th, next year.
