Mum-of-three Melissa Hamilton died in 2011 after two opportunities to diagnose her breast cancer were missed; she died eight days after giving birth to her third child, Gracie, in September of that year.

 

According to reports, Melissa presented herself to her GP in 2009 with symptoms relating to her right breast and, after undergoing a scan, was told she had a benign cyst. However, by June 2010 the pain had increased and there was also a discharge, but she was diagnosed with mastitis and given antibiotics.

 

She continued to consult her GP about the lump but it wasn’t until she met with a locum that she was diagnosed with Grade 3 cancer. The mum-of-three was pregnant at the time and it was decided to deliver her baby via Caesarean at 28 weeks.

 

When she was finally diagnosed with cancer, her husband, Seamus Hamilton, who described his wife as "superwoman", said “we went home and she broke down.” Sadly, Melissa went back into hospital two days after her diagnoses and never left.

 

 

Seamus, who told the High Court that he was lucky to have met and married his soul mate, described how he then had to tell his two young children, Jessica, who was six at the time, and Darcy, who was two, that their mother had gone to heaven.

 

“It’s not a job I want to have to do again. I could see it in Jessica’s eyes. I told her mummy was in heaven and looking over her like and angel,” he said.

 

Heartbreakingly he admitted that a year later, his eldest daughter admitted that she thought her “mummy had only gone to heaven for a while”, saying: “That was tougher that actually telling her."

 

The case is currently ongoing and our thoughts are with Seamus and his young children at this truly difficult time.

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