€1.5m settlement in brain injury case

A €1.5 million settlement has been reached in High Court proceedings brought in relation to a mother of five who suffered severe brain injuries allegedly due to delays in medical treatment.

The defendants had denied the claims and the settlement is without admission of liability.

Bernard Brewer claimed there was a lengthy delay in treating his wife Mary (68) after fluid had built up on her brain following surgery.

It was claimed Ms Brewer lay in a hospital bed for several months in 2002 and got no treatment at all due to an alleged breakdown of communication between Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and Tullamore Hospital.

Mr Brewer (70), of Whitehall, Tullamore, Co Offaly, brought proceedings against Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, consultant neurosurgeon Steven Young, who practises at the hospital, and the HSE, arising out of the treatment of his wife Mary who is wheelchair-bound.

Mr Brewer claimed his wife’s condition was caused by the defendants’ negligence and breach of duty while she was their patient in 2002. The case was listed for hearing before Mr Justice John Quirke yesterday but he was told the matter was settled. Liability was not admitted.

Liam Reidy SC, for Mr Brewer, said Ms Brewer, a former nurse’s aide, would require care for the rest of her life and was cared for by her husband and family.

It was his case that, for several months in 2002, Ms Brewer lay in a hospital bed and got no treatment due to a breakdown of communications between Beamout Hospital and Tullamore Hospital. In the action, it was claimed Ms Brewer had in July 2002 an “ill-advised” surgical procedure after which fluid built up on her brain and a medical procedure was required to drain it.

It was claimed that a long delay in having that procedure correctly carried out resulted in a further raising of pressure on the brain and caused her to suffer brain damage. Had that procedure been done sooner, Ms Brewer’s problems may have been transient but are instead permanent, it was claimed.

On July 1st, 2002, following the advice of Dr Young, Ms Brewer underwent a surgical procedure which confirmed that an abnormality that had shown up on prior scans was a simple arachnoid cyst, it was claimed. Her recovery was slow but she was discharged on August 1st. After becoming ill, she was readmitted to Tullamore Hospital 20 days later and a CT scan was performed, it was claimed. She remained in hospital in Tullamore for several months. A scan carried out on November 20th showed a build-up of fluid on her brain and she was transferred back to Beaumont on November 26th, where she underwent a shunt procedure to relieve pressure on the brain.

It was claimed that procedure was not done correctly and she underwent the same procedure on January 3rd, 2003, and again in April 2003. It was alleged that Ms Brewer had failed to return to her pre-operative state and remained significantly disabled.

Her husband claimed his own health had suffered as a result of the strain and stress of what happened to his wife.