The Circuit Civil Court in Dublin has awarded a psychology student €6,000 compensation for an acupuncture injury the student received after they had volunteered to assist with a training course.
Bernadette Poleon (now 45 years old) from Dunboyne in County Meath volunteered in April 2010 to assist with a clinical acupuncture training course that was being run by the Irish Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Dublin.
One of the exercises that students were instructed to complete involved the insertion of needles below each of Bernadette´s eyes. After a course supervisor examined one student´s placement of the needles, the needle below Bernadette´s right eye was repositioned – but the placement of the needle below her left eye remained unchanged.
Later the same day, the skin around Bernadette´s left eye started to become puffy and tender; and within a few days, significant tallow and black bruising had developed around the eye. The puffiness disappeared several days later, but the yellow and black bruising around Bernadette´s eye lasted for seven weeks.
Bernadette also started to suffer from sinus problems after assisting at the acupuncture training course – for which she is still undergoing treatment from her GP – and, after seeking legal advice, she made a claim for compensation for an acupuncture injury against the Irish Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Bellfield Consultants Ltd – the owners of the Irish Institute of Traditional Chinese medicine – contested Bernadette´s compensation claim for an acupuncture injury and prepared a full defence against the claim when court proceedings were issued. However, at the Circuit Civil Court, Judge Jacqueline Linnane was told that the case was now before her for the assessment of compensation only.
After listening to an explanation of how the injury had been sustained, and hearing about the embarrassment Bernadette had experienced while the eye injury was still visible, the judge awarded Bernadette €6,000 compensation for an acupuncture injury in settlement of her claim.