Michael Neary is a former Irish consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist who carried out unnecessary surgical removal of the wombs of 129 women, many immediately following delivery of a baby.
After examining nine case files presented by Dr Neary they found that he should continue working in the Lourdes Hospital, without sanction, pending any further inquiry.
"The unplanned sterilisation of a young woman, as some of Dr. Neary's patients were, is too high a price to pay for a surgeon's phobias," states the inquiry report.
"Despite exhaustive research, judge Hardin-Clark never exposed the "miscreant/s" but she did suggest the involvement of women - at least two, one of whom wore nail varnish - and a possible motive of "misplaced loyalty" to Dr Neary.
The bulk of the sabotage of patient files and medical records began in October 1998 when Dr Neary's alarming rate of hysterectomies first came to light.
[10] On 9 March 2006 Tom O'Malley, The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, launched the report in the Seanad and said 'I want to express my deepest regret and to apologise to these women and their families for what happened.
The idea that a well-known and liked (as he was at the time) consultant obstetrician could needlessly remove women's wombs, and get away with it for so long, was shocking in itself, but the delay in discovery and investigation, and numerous other incidents that emerged following the publication of the Lourdes Inquiry, created a media storm and resulted in pages of coverage in newspapers.The hospital's 25 year culture of silence was noted.
As a result of the outcry following the publication of the report, the Irish Medical Council pressed to introduce new legislation that would allow them more power to find and stop any doctor who is performing poorly.
The three Dublin obstetricians who wrote the two initial reports appearing to clear Neary of any wrongdoing and defending his treatment of nine women whose wombs he removed later expressed serious regrets.
[14] Dr John Murphy resigned in Feb 2007 as President of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland following Medical Council criticism of his role in the case.
The story followed a young midwife who became concerned over the high number of caesarean hysterectomies carried out by consultant surgeon Dr. Neary at the Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.
Her blowing the whistle on Dr Neary sets in train a series of events which resulted in a full investigation which attracted high media coverage throughout the country.