‘No one told us that Noel’s blindness was caused by medical failures’

Noel McCarthy has had to learn to accept his blindness, but his parents were determined he should be told what caused it.

Noel, 13, was yesterday awarded €3.2m after doctors admitted that failures in their care for him as a tiny infant led to him being left without sight.

But the settlement only came after his parents, Abina and Tadhg, pursued answers to questions that bothered them all their son’s life.