€177k for victim of two road incidents

If retired county council worker Edmund Quinlan lived in the US, his blood would be bottled, a surgeon told the High Court in Limerick yesterday.

A consultant at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital, Thomas Burke, gave this view when outlining the recovery 72-year-old Mr Quinlan had made from two separate road incidents, in which he was knocked down by cars when walking near his home at Garryspillane, Co Limerick.

Mr Quinlan a retired Limerick County Council worker, suffered massive leg injuries in both incidents, in 2004 and 2010.

Awarding Mr Quinlan damages totalling €177,630 and costs arising out of the 2010 accident, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said he had stoically coped with the afflictions piled on him.

Mr Justice McDermott said: “He has recovered against all possible odds from the injuries he sustained.”

Gerry Tynan, counsel for Mr Quinlan, described his client as a misfortune in life who had suffered “dreadful, dreadful” injuries in two road incidents in 2004 and 2010.

The latter incident, the subject of yesterday’s proceedings, occurred on March 5, 2010.

Mr Quinlan had left his home, where he lived alone, to walk to the pub for a drink and a game of cards. As Mr Quinlan walked close to the ditch, he was “mown down” by a motorist, who did not see him due to the setting sun.

Mr Tynan said that claims Mr Quinlan had drink taken at the time had been withdrawn the day before the case came to court and had been completely unfair and out of the question.

Consultant surgeon Thomas Burke outlined the extensive leg fractures suffered by Mr Quinlan, who had to be placed in balanced suspension for 10 weeks after undergoing major surgery following the incident.

Dr Burke said: “He took to walking with trepidation and was spectacularly successful in order to get outside the hospital to have a cigarette.”

Dr Burke recalled that Mr Quinlan was treated for massive leg fractures at Croom in 2004 after another road incident when he was also struck by a car while walking.

Dr Burke said Mr Quinlan’s recovery from the 2004 incident was “marginally short of miraculous”.

After the 2010 incident, Dr Burke said he had little hope of Mr Quinlan making a good recovery, but he did, adding: “If he was in America, his blood would be bottled.”

A metal implant placed in one leg following the 2004 incident meant that other parts of the same leg were shattered into fragments in the 2010 impact.

Mr Quinlan, due to ongoing frailty, now resides in a nursing home, the court heard.

Awarding medical and nursing home costs of €62,630 and damages of €115,000 general damages, Mr Justice McDermott said the surgeon, Dr Burke, was rightly proud of what he had achieved in treating Mr Quinlan, who, he said. was very stoical in dealing with the injuries piled on him and had recovered against all the odds.