Brain-damaged, partially blind teenager wins €3m settlement

A YOUNG brain-damaged man who is partially blind as a result of alleged delays and negligence in performing urgent surgery on him when he was aged nine at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin is to receive €3 million in settlement of his High Court action for damages.

The settlement is without admission of liability.

Darren O’Neill (17), Avondale, Waterford, who was brain damaged from a very young age, had, through his mother Audrey, sued the hospital arising from serious injuries which it is claimed he sustained as a result of alleged delays in treating him in May 2000 when he was aged nine.

In court yesterday, Liam Reidy SC, for Darren O’Neill, told Mr Justice Éamon de Valera the injuries had a devastating effect on the boy’s life, affecting his ability to perform in school and to participate in social and recreational activities.

The judge approved the settlement for €3 million in favour of Mr O’Neill.

Mr O’Neill has suffered with hydrocephalus from a young age. It was alleged the hospital had undertaken after his birth in 1990 to provide specialist treatment and advice for that condition, including insertion, maintenance and review of a shunt device for the purpose of draining fluid from his brain.

In his action, it was claimed the shunt had malfunctioned on May 5th, 2000, and that Mr O’Neill was as a result admitted to Waterford Regional Hospital from where he was transferred the following day to Our Lady’s hospital in Crumlin because his condition was rapidly deteriorating.

It was claimed that, despite the alleged confirmation at the Crumlin hospital of a malfunction of the shunt and of the need for surgical intervention, there was a delay in effecting such intervention and that this delay caused Mr O’Neill to suffer severe personal injuries.

It was claimed that the boy’s condition on May 6th, 2000, deteriorated to the extent he had reduced movement of his upper and lower limbs, reduced or impaired levels of consciousness and loss of spontaneous movements, especially of eye opening.

The boy was operated on at 7.15pm on May 6th and it is claimed that, on coming to after the surgery, he experienced visual problems.

A CT scan performed some weeks later, on May 22nd, 2000, confirmed sight problems and Mr O’Neill was subsequently diagnosed as suffering from partial blindness.