A Violation Against Women: What Happened to Me at Our Lady of Lourdes is a compelling story of how one woman dealt with a devastating loss – and successfully took on the medical establishment.

On 10 July 1995, Kathleen Ward went into Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to give birth. At the hands of Dr Michael Neary, she underwent an unplanned and unnecessary hysterectomy. She was not the only one. Dr Michael Neary performed 188 peripartum hysterectomies over a twenty-five year period, according to the Judge Harding Clark Report.

For Kathleen, what followed this violent and unwanted surgery was a dark period filled with debilitating panic attacks and traumatic reliving of the operation. For years, Kathleen fought a tide of misinformation, mishandled evidence and atrocious injustice, seeking recognition and compensation. In A Violation Against Women, she relates her story with honesty and sincerity – the story of how she successfully rebuilt her life following the procedure. Kathleen was a pioneer in the establishment of a multi-disciplinary Clinic in Co. Monaghan and is now in her thirty-first year of practice.

Neary has been struck off of the medical register, but walks free.