Court to determine future care costs for opera singer left severely disabled

An award-winning part-time opera singer, who was left severely disabled after a hospital and a GP failed to properly diagnose the cause of her headaches and who settled her action with an interim payment of €2.39m, has now asked the High Court to determine the cost of her future care.

The High Court has to assess future care costs for Elaine Lennon, aged 38, who can now only speak in a whisper, is a wheelchair user, and will require 24-hour care for the rest of her life because doctors failed to diagnose an infection in her brain.

A previous court sitting heard she would have been fine if a CT scan of her brain had been carried out in time.