Man settles with hospital for €2.5m

A 29-year old man who is brain-damaged and confined to a wheelchair has settled for €2.5m his action against St James’s Hospital, Dublin, over the circumstances of his birth.

Eoin Harte, the High Court heard, has dyskinetic cerebral palsy and has won three medals in the Special Olympics.

His senior counsel, Oonagh McCrann, told Mr Justice Kevin Cross that Mr Harte was a lovely young man who was thrilled to have won the medals in the Special Olympics in 2004.

Mr Harte of Castlecomer Ro, Graiguecullen, Co Carlow, had, through his mother Áine Harte, sued St James’s Hospital, Dublin, for alleged negligence and breach of duty in the circumstances of his birth at the hospital on July 26, 1985.

The settlement was without an admission of liability.