A woman with cervical cancer whose lawyers appealed to the Health Service Executive to settle her case before her death has died without the case being resolved, the High Court has been told.
Last week, her lawyers asked the HSE in the High Court to settle the case over the alleged misreporting of her cervical smear slides.
The 59-year-old woman's action against the HSE, laboratory Eurofins Biomnis Ireland and US laboratory CPL was due to be heard early next month.
She claimed if smears taken in February or August 2010 had been correctly reported, she could have been treated and would not have developed invasive cancer.
The defendants denied the claims.
Last week, her lawyers said she was gravely ill with only days to live and asked the HSE to enter into mediation talks or to give her an assurance that her right to general damages if she won her case would be preserved after her death.
Mediation talks began late last week, but the woman died before any resolution could be reached.
Her senior counsel Jeremy Maher told the High Court that the talks took place on Friday but did not resolve the case and the woman later died.
He said the proceedings would now have to be reconstituted and the action would have to be taken by her husband.
He said the HSE and the laboratories had been asked to preserve the woman’s right to general damages after her death but that had been refused he said.
Mr Justice Paul Coffey said he was "very saddened" to hear of her death and conveyed his deepest sympathy to her husband and family.
