A Medical Council fitness to practice inquiry has begun into 38 allegations of professional misconduct against a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
The inquiry is into Dr Etop Akpan, who qualified in Nigeria in 1984, and concerns his care of a 29-year-old woman who died from cancer in April 2009.
Sharon McEneaney, from Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, was the eldest of five children and worked as a manager in a crèche in Dublin.
She waited nine months between her visit to the hospital in October 2007, complaining of severe abdominal pain and being treated for cancer in July 2008.
She had been treated at the Drogheda hospital in 2004 and 2005 for neurofibromatosis, a genetically inherited condition that can lead nerve tissues to grow tumours.
After seeing her GP a number of times, Ms McEneaney attended the Emergency Department at the hospital on three occasions during October and November 2007.
Following hospital tests, it was suspected that a ruptured ovarian cyst may have been the cause.
On 10 November, Dr Akpan decided that Ms McEneaney should be admitted in a couple of weeks for surgery.
She was not admitted until around six weeks later and exploratory laparoscopic surgery was performed on 20 December where a retroperitoneal mass was found.
Ms McEneaney was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, discharged home and recommended to attend for outpatient review in around two to four weeks.
Ms McEneaney returned to the hospital for an ultrasound on 3 April 2008 where a large pelvic mass was found.
On 23 May 2008, Ms McEneaney attended her GP in pain and he wrote to Dr Akpan asking what care was planned as "she was left totally in the dark".
After an intervention by local GP and former TD, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, Ms McEneaney had a biopsy at the hospital where a malignant tumour was diagnosed.
She was referred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for treatment in July 2008 and died in April 2009.
A complaint was made to the Medical Council by Ms McEneaney's sister, Tanya, and the HSE also conducted its own inquiry.
Inquiry expected to last three days
The Medical Council inquiry is expected to last three days and will hear from 18 witnesses.
A number of witnesses are to apply for their evidence to be heard in private.
Dr Shane Corr, a Monaghan GP, told the inquiry, that he felt frustrated that his patient did not appear to have been sorted out by Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Dr Corr said he asked for reports of scans and other tests conducted on her.
He said what he received did not tally with her having a cyst removed and he felt that her case needed to be investigated urgently and he asked that a review of her care be expedited.
After Ms McEneaney came to see him in late July 2008, after a biopsy at the hospital, he said he did not feel there was any follow-up plan.
He said he later called the hospital's pathology department in July 2008 to find out the outcome of the biopsy and learned it was malignant.
Dr Corr said he was very annoyed and upset and he made a complaint about the case to the hospital but got no response.
