Woman settles action over care she got at Cork University Hospital when she had brain operation

The woman's mother told the High Court: 'I have had two heart attacks in the past and I just want a nurse one night a week but they won’t give it'

The woman was speaking as her daughter, now in her 30s, settled for €1.3m a High Court action over her care when she had brain tumour surgery at Cork University Hospital when she was only eight years old. File picture: Larry Cummins

A mother who has looked after her child who has ongoing neurological deficits for the last 24 years on Thursday told a High Court judge how she has pleaded with the HSE for a nurse to help out one night a week but has been turned down.

"I have had two heart attacks in the past and I just want a nurse one night a week but they won’t give it," the woman told Mr Justice Paul Coffey.

She was speaking as her daughter, now in her 30s, settled for €1.3m a High Court action over her care when she had brain tumour surgery at Cork University Hospital when she was only eight years old.

The settlement is on the basis of a liability apportionment of just 10% against the HSE. Mr Justice Coffey also ordered that the family not be identified.

The court heard if the case had gone to trial it would have taken 10 to 12 weeks.

The woman’s counsel, Dr John O’Mahony SC instructed by Vincent Toher Solicitors, told the court it was "a very complex, heartbreaking and devastating case” where the little girl when she was eight years of age was found to have a very large brain tumour. Counsel said without the surgery the little girl would only have survived six to nine months.

However, he said it was their case that after the 2001 surgery at Cork University Hospital, the little girl’s vision was turned down to the left and she was left with neurological deficits including cognitive impairment, deafness and epilepsy. Now in her 30s, the woman cannot walk unaided so has to use a wheelchair, requires full-time care and will never be able to live independently, counsel said.

Dr O’Mahony said it was their case that while a CT scan was taken before the brain surgery, an MRI scan, which counsel said “would have illuminated and given a broader picture” as to how to plan for the brain surgery, was not done. The MRI scan, it was contended, would have given an indication of brain stem involvement with the tumour and could have influenced the surgical approach.

All of the claims in the proceedings were denied. 

The woman’s mother told the judge her eight-year-old daughter before the surgery “was skipping and dancing on the ward” but after the surgery she was “like a rag doll”. She said she and her husband have looked after their daughter for the last 24 years “and done everything for her and even bought equipment”. 

She told the judge:

I have had two heart attacks. I have pleaded with the HSE for a nurse one night a week and they won’t give it. My daughter’s wheelchair is five years old; my daughter who suffers from seizures is a prisoner in her own home.

She said the HSE did give the family 15 hours a week and the Irish Wheelchair Association allotted seven hours a week, but her daughter needs full-time care and she and her husband have to provide it.

After hearing the mother, the judge said that she and her husband were to be saluted for their efforts over the last 24 years which he said were “truly heroic”. Approving the settlement, the judge said there were “formidable difficulties“ in the case and in the circumstances the offer was adequate.