THE SUPREME Court has reserved judgment on an appeal against a High Court judge’s decision that a symphysiotomy procedure carried out on a young woman when having her first baby at the age of 18 was “wholly unnecessary” and amounted to “grave medical malpractice”.
The Medical Missionaries of Mary, in its capacity as owner of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in 1969 when the procedure was carried out on Olivia Kearney, have also appealed the amount of the €450,000 damages awarded as excessive.
The procedure was carried out on Ms Kearney, now 60, at the hospital in 1969 by Dr Gerard Connolly, since deceased. Ms Kearney was unaware at the time that the procedure was carried out. It involved making the pelvis larger by cutting through cartilage binding the pubic bones.