'My heart broke': Limerick mum gets Cervical Check letter for daughter who died six years ago

MELANIE Cleary sat at her kitchen table for 10 minutes on Tuesday morning holding a letter addressed to her late daughter - Eve Marie Sheehan Cleary.

Eve, aged 21, of Corbally, Limerick, died from a blood clot on July 21, 2019 - hours after she was discharged from University Hospital Limerick. A verdict of medical misadventure was recorded at her inquest.

Last year, the Cleary family settled a High Court action over Eve’s death with the HSE and UHL who expressed “sincere condolences and deep regret”.

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Melanie thought she was seeing things at first when she received the letter with her daughter’s name on it.

“I took the letter in and I sat down in the kitchen for 10 minutes holding it before I even opened it. I was trying to rack my brain thinking, who's this from? I thought because Schuh closed recently on Bedford Row, it might be something to do with her job there.

“When I opened it, I just, I nearly died. It was from Cervical Check,” said Melanie.

The first line of the letter reads: "It's time to make your appointment for your free HPV cervical screening test. “

Melanie shared a photo of the letter on social media, saying, “My heart broke this morning”.

“Would you believe it was dated for Eve's birthday of May 14. She would have been 27," said Melanie, pictured below with Eve.

After the sadness and upset came anger.

“We were fuming as well. My husband Barry said to me, ‘They couldn't treat the women with cervical cancer when they were alive and they're sending out letters to women that are dead’.

“Nine days after she died I received a bill from UHL for €100 sent to the Estate of the late Eve Cleary. When I contacted them they waived that bill and they reassured me she's off every system. 

“We went to the Department of Social Protection, we went to Revenue, we went to everyone after she died to make sure we didn’t get anything else coming out in Eve’s name. When you see her name written down on a letter it is completely different - it's horrific,” said Melanie, who was a Mid-West Hospital Campaign candidate in last year’s General Election.

She said the “plot thickened” this Wednesday morning when a letter from Cervical Check was hand delivered by a taxi driver to Melanie.

“They said they were very sorry for any distress caused. They said it was an error and a mistake,” said Melanie, who called for IT systems to be integrated better to ensure other families don’t get letters addressed to deceased loved ones.

“This happens the whole time. People were commenting under my post. One woman said her mother got a colonoscopy letter - her mother had died of bowel cancer. They need to hook up each other's systems and stop compounding families' pain,” concluded Melanie.

University Hospital Limerick via HSE Mid West and the HSE have been contacted for comment.

A HSE spokesperson said: "On behalf of the National Screening Service, we would like to apologise unreservedly for the correspondence sent in error to the Cleary family.

"We can confirm that our screening registers have been updated and we are deeply sorry for the upset, anger and sorrow this has caused."