A Limerick widow who sued a health board and a doctor for damages following the death of her husband five years ago lost her case in the High Court yesterday.
Mrs Carmel Collins (42), Glenanaar Avenue, of Woodview Park, Limerick, sued the Mid Western Health Board and Dr bay O'Connor, of Kilbranish ark, Woodview Park, Limerick, who denied negligence. Her husband, Mr James Collins (42), a block layer, died in March 1991 following a brain haemorrhage. The couple have three children.
Mr Justice Johnson, in a reserved judgment, said Mrs Collins had failed to establish negligence against the defendants and rejected the claim. Mr Eugene Gleeson, counsel for the defence, said he had been instructed not to apply for costs.
Mr Collins attended Dr O'Connor and was also treated at Limerick Regional Hospital. His counsel laid that on March 22nd/23rd an aneurism was found and he was transferred to Cork Regional Hospital, where he arrived in an unconscious state. He was put on a life support machine and declared brain dead. He died on March 27th.
Mr Justice Johnson said Mr Collins was a healthy man who worked with his brother. He had never been sick in his life. On February 20th, 1991, while at work, he suffered a sudden blinding headache. He was brought home and went to Dr O'Connor.
It was claimed Dr O'Connor ought to have referred Mr Collins immediately for further investigation on February 20th and after wards that a Dr Nur, a senior house officer at the Limerick hospital, was negligent in failing to admit him as an emergency and that a Dr Patrick Seigne, also a hospital doctor, and the health board were negligent in carrying out a lumbar puncture.
Mr Justice Johnson said it was clear from the evidence given by experts on all sides that the history of a case was the most important part of diagnosis and treatment.
The judge said that Mr Collins, having been asked the appropriate questions by Dr O'Connor, whom he found to be a very conscientious and very impressive doctor, did not give a history that indicated the necessity for urgent examination but rather indicated Mr Collins was suffering from something in the nature of flu or an upper respiratory infection.
Mr Justice Johnson said that if he accepted that Dr O'Connor recorded the history as given to him by the deceased, quite clearly the deceased gave a history quite different from the evidence given by his wife and brother in court.
In his [the judge's] view, and he held it was a fact, Dr O'Connor asked the correct questions in the course of taking the history and in his examination and recorded the history accurately.
He was satisfied Mr Collins failed to communicate to Dr O'Connor or Dr Maurice O'Brien, another local GP, or Dr Nur on the sudden onset and severity of the headache and its persisting, disabling effects.
He found Mrs Collins had failed to establish that Mr O'Connor was negligent in failing to refer Mr Collins for a further examination when first examined by him. In tact, Dr O'Connor struck him as being an extremely careful and conscientious GP who had dealt, in his view, with the deceased with all care.
Mr Justice Johnson said he found that Dr Nur had asked Mr Collins all the relevant questions and once again did not get the history from him which was given by Mrs Collins in the witness box and by the deceased man's brother. Had the history as given by Mrs Collins and the deceased man's brother been given to Dr O'Connor, Dr O'Brien or Dr Nur, he felt their attitudes would have been different.
He found that Dr Nur examined the deceased, asked the relevant questions, and on the history as obtained by him and on the tests done exercised a judgment not to admit the deceased. In his (the judge's) view, he had not been proved to be negligent.
The third allegation of negligence was against the health board, and particularly Dr Seigne, for carrying out a lumbar puncture at a time when it was contraindicated.
Mr Justice Johnson said he found Mrs Collins had failed to establish a claim of negligence against the defendants in regard to the execution of the lumbar puncture. The judge said that in particular he found Mrs Collins had failed to establish that the cause of death was due to the utilisation of a lumbar puncture.