Woman ‘unable to walk’ was discharged

A woman who had an operation to remove her gallbladder at Kerry General Hospital was discharged two days later even though she was in severe pain and unable to walk, the High Court was told yesterday.

Farzana Zahan said she was in such pain she could not hold her two-month-old daughter and had to be rushed back to the hospital the next morning.

Opening the case, counsel John O’Mahony said that in the first gallbladder operation, a duct was cut, and there was no excuse for the damage and it was “inexcusable and substandard”. He said there was later no identification of the underlying problem and Ms Zahan nearly died of multi-organ failure. Ms Zahan at one stage was on an artificial ventilator in ICU and it was “a life- threatening situation”, he said.