Over the past few weeks my solicitor has had Robins treatment reviewed by independant medical/dental experts.
This week i have received copies of the reports.The Dental report states categorically that the dentist was negligent .He was guilty of gross misconduct and fraudulent record keeping .
The report from the professor of head and neck cancer says he was negligent but he was'n't responsible for Robins death.

On Dec 4th on examination robin had a 4*3 cm swelling on the left side of his face as well as a 1.5cm ulcer on the lateral surface on the right side of his tongue.

The pathology on the tongue showed a poorly differentiated scc which was ulcerated and measured 11 mm invading into the underlying muscle.
The pathology on the neck showed a 31mm poorly differentiated scc in the soft tissue of submandibular region separate from the gland .The surrounding lymph glands were free from tumour.
Her conclusions are.. [quote] there are obviously great difficulties in suggesting the degree of benefit likely to have been achieved by an advance in the date of diagnosis and treatment by five months.One must recognise however the aggressive appearance under microscope ,the relatively short interval between the appearance of the tumour and the presentation of the gland on the neck,the unusual migration of tumour cells to the opposite side of the neck and the possibility that they had already reached that area by June 2006,the short intrval between the completion of treatment and the appearance of the local recurrance and the detection of the distant metastisis in the lung and finally the short interval between diagnosis and death.One cannot exclude the possibility that an earlier diagnosis would have given some chance of cure but i fear the possibility to be too small to be given significane.

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So it would seem the General Dental councils decision was right and proper ,and the punishment the dentist received was fitting to his crime,and of course the world wide publicity which was associated with the hearing can only have been good for raising awareness and for all future potential oral cancer patient.

So the line is drawn finally .Cancer killed Robin.He was a high risk subject and he paid the ultimate price for his excesses,and i will continue to do everything i can to help other wives,husbands/daughters/sons/brothers and sister/living their lives in the shadow of this disease.
A suggestion has been brought up regarding a manual for the relatives who walk this road alongside their loved ones,and i think i am going to pick this one up and run with it.Cathy if you want to help i would be very happy and if any others from the old wives club fancy chipping in that would be great.I have an appointment with my grief counsellor tomorrow whic is well timed as now i have no one person to direct my anger towards i am sure she will hepl me give it up and move on..