President Michael D. Higgins led a series of tributes to Phelan’s courage and how she shone a light on health service failures that affected hundreds of other women. “Thanks to her tireless efforts, despite the tremendous personal cost she had to bear, so many women’s lives were and will be protected in the future,” Higgins said. “She will be deeply missed by all those who were in awe of her courage, her resilience, which she gave not only to women but to all of us in Ireland.” Phelan died at Milford Hospice in County Limerick in the early hours of Monday morning surrounded by her family – a death that could have been avoided if a smear test in 2011 had detected abnormalities. It gave a false negative. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and began treatment weeks later. A review by Ireland’s health service chief discovered the mistake three years earlier, but no one told Phelan until 2017. A year later, she discovered the cancer was terminal. She sued and won a €2.5 million settlement without admitting liability from Clinical Pathology Laboratories, a Texas-based company subcontracted to evaluate her test. Crucially, he resisted a gag order and lifted the lid on a wider disaster. Inaccurate smear test results were given to at least 208 women who were later diagnosed with cervical cancer. Most were not informed of the revised results. At least 21 have died. An investigation detailed how the HSE outsourced testing to unapproved laboratories in the UK and US, failed to monitor them and had an inadequate system to respond to screening errors. The inquiry decried “system-wide failure” and “paternalism” in Irish healthcare. Thailand captain Micheál Martin hailed Phelan’s courage and integrity. “In the history of this country, I think her actions, particularly not signing a confidentiality agreement at that particular moment outside the steps of the supreme court, will long be remembered as an example of someone who went against the system and normal conventions,” he told RTÉ. “He stood up for the public interest.” Phelan has been honored, invited to chatshows and featured in documentaries. Her memoir, Overcoming, won awards. But all the while, her cancer was progressing – she was told in 2018 that she had less than a year to live. She successfully fought for access to pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug that shrunk the tumor and extended her life. “I’ve always been bullheaded and stubborn,” she told the Guardian in 2019. “I thought: I’m not getting this. I have two small children. You can’t honestly tell me to go home and die. I was so angry.” She tried not to dwell on how an accurate smear test could have saved her life. “If I go down that road, I end up depressed. I have no time on my side.”
