A husband suing over the wrongful death of his wife wants damages to cover the cost of bringing the couple’s frozen embryos to birth via surrogacy.

He and his wife had initiated the IVF process before she passed away of cervical cancer.

He took a case against the HSE and three labs for allegedly misreading a smear test in 2011.

Counsel for Mr Creaven said he is determined to honour his wife’s wish and proceed to have a child through surrogacy. The couple’s frozen embryos are in a fertility clinic in the Czech Republic and Mr Creaven wants to go to the US for surrogacy. “It is the only way he can fulfill the wish they both had.”

The case also includes a claim for aggravated or punitive damages in relation to an alleged comment by a consultant to a member of Ms Mitchell Creaven’s family during a disclosure meeting in 2018 in relation to the result of an CervicalCheck audit of the 2011 slide. The consultant’s alleged comment: “Well, nuns don’t get cervical cancer” was “grossly insensitive”, counsel said.

On Thursday it was reported that the case was settled out of court.