This book documents the amazingly distressing story that occurred in the National Women's Hospital from the 1960s onwards where cervical cancer patients were virtually experimented on, and as a result many died or suffered extraordinarily long with a disease that could have been treated at the first instance. Since the writing of this book, a couple of pieces of information have been corrected, I am unsure as to what exactly these are but the substance remains the same.
As Coney suggests, although one doctor was at the centre of the research, the problem lay with the hospital itself and the various obstacles that were surpassed to allow such a thing to take place initially. The fact that it also went on despite protests from doctors and nurses alike is also testament to the lack of follow-up and checking involved especially considering many people knew that Dr Green's methods were not used by any other doctor in the world.
Coney tells this story very well. A lot of people perceived the whole thing (wrongly) as a feminist witchhunt but Coney tells the story impartially and fairly throughout even mentioning some of the more amusing comments she received about her political beliefs. It also showed that no one person was held to account but it was a more systemic failure.
Highly recommend this book to any New Zealander, shocking and well thought out.
No comments:
Post a Comment