Mother weeps as €550k settlement of her son's case approved against her wishes

The High Court heard the original €550,000 settlement offer was approved after the boy’s counsel told the court that no increase could be negotiated with the State Claims Agency which represents CHI

The case before the courts centred on the care the schoolboy received at CHI at Crumlin and a biopsy of the boy’s brainstem tumour carried out at CHI Temple St (pictured) where it was claimed he suffered a stroke. File photo

A mother whose nine-year-old son has a brain tumour and terminal cancer with a limited life expectancy wept in the High Court as a judge against her wishes approved a €550,000 settlement of her son’s case against Children’s Health Ireland.

Only last May the little boy was brought to a doctor with what his mother thought was an ear infection, but the family later discovered he had an inoperable brain tumour.

The case before the courts centred on the care the schoolboy received at CHI at Crumlin and a biopsy of the boy’s brainstem tumour carried out at CHI Temple St where it was claimed he suffered a stroke.

The nine-year-old’s mother told Mr Justice Paul Coffey her son was in “unimaginable pain” after the biopsy earlier this year.

“I called out my son’s name and he looked at me in sheer horror and unimaginable pain. He grabbed my arm, shaking gasping for air and unable to speak. I believe in that moment he knew he was dying,” she told the judge.

Her son, she said, was in hospital for 26 days and when he finally emerged from his coma he was only able to move his eyes.

She added:
I can’t imagine how scared my little boy was. Doctors said he had a locked-in condition and may be like this for the remainder of his life. 

Her son, she said, has regained speech “but it is nothing near normal speech and nothing like it was before the biopsy.” 

“He no longer looks like our son and no longer sounds like our son. He should be outside playing on his bike with his friends going to school and doing all the things a child would be doing, even with a dismal prognosis. Instead, he is confined to the couch in our sitting room because of the biopsy we believe he did not need to have,” she said.

Mr Justice Paul Coffey, who said he was very moved by the mother’s story, had sent the case back for further mediation.

When the case returned to the High Court on Wednesday, the original €550,000 settlement offer was approved after the boy’s counsel, Jonathan Kilfeather SC instructed by Michael Boylan Litigation, told the court that no increase could be negotiated with the State Claims Agency which represents CHI.

Mr Justice Coffey said it was “a very difficult and tragic case” but he had to act in the best interests of the child. The boy, he said, has a limited life expectancy and if the matter were to proceed to trial it could be months before a judgment. 

If the court decision went against the defendant, the judge said it would be entitled to appeal. He said he had drilled into the facts of the case and he was satisfied there was a real litigation risk.

The settlement is without an admission of liability.

Mr Justice Coffey also directed that the entire sum by paid to the boy’s parents within a week.

The mother wept as she told the judge: 

The legal world is not the real world. I feel my son is being let down again. If this goes ahead there is nothing we can do. I have tried my best.

The boy or his family cannot be identified by order of the court.

In the proceedings against Children’s Health Ireland, it was claimed that there was an alleged failure to obtain a full and proper and informed consent in relation to the biopsy procedure and an alleged failure to advise the family about alternative treatments.

All the claims were denied and it was contended by CHI that there was a reasonable case to carry out the biopsy.