A retired Dublin surgeon who conducted his own defence of a High Court action alleging negligence against him faces a legal bill of around €400,000 after losing his case yesterday.
Mr Justice Johnson ordered Mr Vincent Lynch to pay a former patient €311,953 damages, plus legal costs. The judge found Mr Lynch had attempted to introduce a false or fabricated document during the court proceedings.
The award was made to Ms Christine Carroll (45), a former hospital administrator, of Brookfield Green, Dublin. She had sued Mr Lynch, a retired cardiothoracic surgeon, who carried on a practice at St Vincent's Hospital and the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin.
Ms Carroll claimed she went to St Vincent's with a collapsed lung and that Mr Lynch carried out keyhole surgery on June 5th, 1996.
She alleged he made an incorrect entry near the nipple of her right breast, punctured an artery and caused it to bleed.
As a result, she claimed, Mr Lynch had had to carry out chest surgery to stop the bleeding, which procedure involved a 15 to 20 per cent risk she would suffer from constant pain. She told an earlier court hearing that she does suffer continuous pain.
Giving his decision yesterday, Mr Justice Johnson said two medical experts called on behalf of Ms Carroll had stated that under no circumstances should an entry have been made in the middle of her breast.
It was only in the presence of the judge and of two experts for Ms Carroll, and when Mr Lynch was actually presented with Ms Carroll's breast and scar, that Mr Lynch had finally admitted where the second surgical entry had been. Mr Lynch had initially disputed the position and, when presented with photographic evidence, had said the mark could have been a chest "drain".
Mr Justice Johnson said he was satisfied, when it came to a dispute on questions of fact, that he could not accept Mr Lynch's evidence on any of the facts which were in dispute.
Mr Lynch's negligence had caused the switch from keyhole surgery to chest surgery and, thereby, increased by at least 85 per cent the likelihood of injury and pain.
Mr James Nugent SC, who represented Mr Lynch at yesterday's hearing, said he suspected Mr Lynch would wish to appeal the court's findings and asked for a stay on the order. Mr Justice Johnson said he would grant a stay on the basis that Mr Lynch would pay €100,000 to Ms Carroll in the meantime.