- NEWS
10% tax on junk food to tackle obesityA 10% tax on fizzy drinks, sweets, biscuits, crisps, and chocolate is to be recommended to the health minister as a way of tackling the country's soaring obesity problem.
Prayer vigil for fine weather as farmers queue for fodderA 24-hour prayer vigil for fine weather has been held on the Kerry-Cork border.
- WORLD
How Star Trek predicted the futureWHEN Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first dreamed up the concept of a television show based in the unexplored universe of Outer Space in 1964, the world was a very different place.
BIG READ: A week in the online terror worldMichael Moynihan on his week in the online terror underworld.
- BUSINESS
IBRC delays loan valuations, saleThe valuation and sale of IBRC loans has been pushed out by six months to November and December of this year.
The smart money is always on SeánFounded four decades ago, its annual turnover is now €2bn.
- SPORT
The Terry Reilly Interview: The Godfather of GalwayOver the course of almost half a century, Liam Sammon has been in service to Galway football. Now he hopes a new generation can restore county pride.
Super Blues keep double in sightsJoe Schmidt's side won their third European trophy in successive years and gave Connacht reason to celebrate also as the Westerners gained entry to next season's Heineken Cup courtesy of their neighbours to the east.
- LIFESTYLE
Perfume for summer: Let in the seasonal lightYOUR wardrobe isn't the only thing that needs updating once the barometer starts to rise.
You’re not gay. You’re in a bromance. Did you cry with your buddy while watching Fergie say farewell at Old Trafford?
14-17C
Breaking stories
Woman settles damages claim over breast op
A woman who sued for damages over an allegedly botched breast augmentation operation has settled her High Court action.
By Ann O’Loughlin
Kate Murray, aged 28, sued Italian consultant Marco Loiacano, who was struck off by the Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise Committee for misconduct in 2011 over the operation he carried out on her in Mar 2008. Two weeks afterwards, Ms Murray had to be admitted to hospital with a life-threatening infection, and spent a month undergoing nine procedures and skin grafts, the Fitness to Practise Committee heard.
Ms Murray, from Dun Laoghaire in Dublin, had also sued Cosmedico Clinic (Dublin) Ltd, trading as Cosmedico Surgery Clinic, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, where the operation, costing €5,800, was carried out. She also sued Dr Loiacano’s fellow surgeon, Keith Robertson, who saw her at the clinic after the operation.
Yesterday, counsel for Ms Murray told the High Court the matter had been settled on Tuesday evening and an order for costs could made against the clinic.
Counsel for the clinic asked for a strike-out of indemnity proceedings as against Dr Robertson and Cosmedico, and that similar indemnity proceedings between Dr Loiacano and the clinic be adjourned generally with liberty to re-enter.
Ms Justice Mary Irvine made the orders and no details of the settlement were revealed.
The fitness to practise inquiry was told that within days of her operation on Mar 15, 2008, Ms Murray began to suffer severe pain and oozing of fluid from her wounds, and she made repeated visits to the clinic before the implants were removed on Mar 31.
Ms Murray was treated at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin for extensive wound breakdown and cellulitis. She also had severe sepsis and was just a step away from necrosis fasciitis — the so-called flesh-eating infection — the inquiry was told by consultant surgeon Denis Evoy, who treated her.
Peter Meagher, St Vincent’s Hospital’s consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon, told the inquiry Dr Loiacano’s treatment of Ms Murray was reckless in the extreme and that she would be horribly physically scarred for life.
“I have no doubt that if she did not go to St Vincent’s, there was a very real possibility she could have ended up in intensive care on a ventilator and anything after that would have been possible.”
Dr Loiacano, who left Cosmedico in Sept 2009, was not in court yesterday, nor did he attend the Fitness to Practise hearing. He is believed to be practising in Rome.
He was also found guilty of professional misconduct in 2006.