Adrienne Cullen

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Adrienne M. Cullen (9 September 1960 – 31 December 2018) was an Irish journalist, editor and healthcare campaigner who died in the Netherlands at 58, after a university hospital, UMC Utrecht, admitted losing test results in 2011 showing she had cervical cancer.

Biography

During her last years, although increasingly ill, Adrienne was a vocal campaigner in the Netherlands for mandatory open disclosure by hospitals when patients are damaged in the course of their treatment. Among many other public occasions, she spoke at De Balie in Amsterdam in October 2018, and at a TedX talk in The Hague the following month. Adrienne also campaigned to have gagging clauses (non-disclosure agreements) banned across the European Union in medical settlements with publicly funded hospitals. There was positive talk about both but no action.

As the Dutch newspaper, NRC, observed in the heading on its obituary, written by its health editor, Frederiek Weeda, and published the day she died: “Staying silent was not an option for Adrienne Cullen (1960 – 2018)."

The Irish national broadcaster, RTE, paid tribute on its prime daily news programme, Morning Ireland, on 2 January, 2019. In a moving video interview with the Dutch patient welfare organisation, Patiëntenstem, Adrienne explained why she campaigned despite her illness. She also spoke on video for The Irish Times in Dublin.

Adrienne Cullen was the first patient in the Netherlands ever to receive an apology in writing from the CEO of the hospital that had harmed her. That apology came from Professor Margriet Schneider from UMC Utrecht.

Deny, Dismiss, Dehumanise: What Happened When I Went to Hospital, her book detailing her experiences in the Dutch healthcare system, was published in English by Dutch publisher, Uitgeverij van Brug on 25 March 2019. The book has not been published in Dutch.

Covering the launch by whistleblower Dutch surgeon, Dr Volkert Wreesmann, The Irish Times said that in a letter to Adrienne’s widower, the Irish foreign correspondent Peter Cluskey, then Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, had described her death as “indescribably tragic".

In July 2019, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, on a state visit to Ireland with Queen Maxima, held a brief private meeting with Cluskey on the fringes of a performance by the Netherlands Dance Theatre in Dublin. This was reported by the Dutch state broadcaster, NOS. Cluskey wrote an account of the encounter in The Irish Times, some days later.

For her courage and persistence, Adrienne was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Laws by her alma mater, University College, Cork, in Ireland, three weeks to the day before she died.

The Adrienne Cullen Lectures

As part of her legal settlement with UMC Utrecht, an annual lecture named the Adrienne Cullen Lecture on Open Disclosure After Medical Harm, was established by the hospital in memory of Adrienne Cullen, who lived in the suburb of Voorschoten, near The Hague, until her death at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam.

In April 2018, Adrienne Cullen was joined by two of her senior doctors, Professor Arie Franx, a divisional director at UMC Utrecht, and his colleague, Professor Huub van der Vaart, head of gynaecology, to deliver the first Adrienne Cullen lecture – which was heavily critical of the hospital. It is possibly for that reason that no recording of the lecture, audio or video, was permitted.

That first lecture was attended by the Irish ambassador to the Netherlands, Kevin Kelly; the director-general of the Netherlands healthcare inspectorate, Dr Ronnie van Dieman; the CEO of UMC Utrecht, Professor Margriet Schneider; representatives of the country’s seven university hospitals, and by many friends and former colleagues. The 270-seat auditorium was packed.

The lecture became controversial when UMC Utrecht officials refused to allow highly regarded Dutch investigative journalist, Ton van der Ham, to enter the lecture theatre and he was taken away by police while waiting. An official investigation found five years later than Van der Ham had done nothing wrong. A video clip recorded by Adrienne with Van der Ham for his employers, BNNVARA, was crucial in that finding.