A MEDICAL Council Fitness to Practise Committee hearing in Galway has been told that a procedure was carried out on a woman with a rare bleeding disease when such an operation should not have taken place at a private hospital.
Consultant haematologist Prof Michael O’Dwyer was giving evidence on the second day of the hearing into complaints against consultant gynaecologist Dr Andrea Hermann.
He told yesterday’s hearing that the operation was “not in the patient’s best interests”. The case is one of seven complaints under investigation by the Medical Council involving patients who were under Dr Hermann’s care between 2005 and 2008.
Dr Hermann has already admitted professional misconduct in her care of a mother of two, Saundra O’Connor (39), from Claregalway, who died after a procedure at the Galway Clinic in 2005.
The second case also involves a 39-year-old mother of two who had to be admitted to Galway University Hospital last year after she became seriously ill following an abdominal hysterectomy carried out by Dr Hermann at the Galway Clinic. The woman suffered from Factor 11 deficiency.
The woman was referred to Dr Hermann last year with a protruding cervix and Prof O’Dwyer was asked about the decision to carry out an abdominal hysterectomy at the Galway Clinic. “I don’t think it was in the patient’s best interests,” he said.
The woman’s husband had earlier given evidence of phoning Dr Hermann as he had concerns about her bleeding disorder, but he found Dr Hermann “arrogant and overbearing”.
Dr Hermann’s nurse manager, Máire Ní Thuairisc, said Dr Hermann was “an excellent surgeon” who had a wonderful relationship with her patients.
The hearing resumes today but is expected to adjourn after today and resume next month.