The High Court has approved a €2.5 million damages settlement to a 31-year-old Co Clare man who suffered irreparable brain damage following an operation on his heart.
Mr Michael McMahon, SC, counsel for Mr John Kelly, Cahermore, Golflinks Road, Ennis, told Mr Justice Peart the settlement offer had been made without an admission of liability by the Southern Health Board.
Mr McMahon said that when Mr Kelly was 13 he was diagnosed as having a narrowing of the aorta, and by the time he was 22, his condition had reached the stage where a valve replacement was advised.
He said the operation took place in University Hospital, Cork, on July 10th, 1996, and a medical negligence case arose out of the manner in which the operation had been conducted.
Mr McMahon said Mr Kelly, while still in hospital on July 19th, collapsed from a very serious heart attack with the result that emergency surgery had to be undertaken to replace the new valve. He said Mr Kelly suffered very serious brain damage with catastrophic results. His legal team identified two matters of concern: the cocktail of drugs administered to fight infection at the time of the operation and the alleged failure to notice and act on the patient's rising temperature.Mr McMahon said the settlement included €1.3 million personal damages, €500,000 for loss of earnings and €300,000 for pain and suffering. Other sums included €56,000 for necessary alterations to his home and €67,000 past care costs due to his sister, Ms Mary Nestor, as well as amounts for medical inflation and future care costs.