A woman, who was awarded 450,000 Euros by the High Court in settlement of her symphysiotomy medical negligence claim, has had the High Court judgement upheld in the Supreme Court.
The woman from Castlebellingham in County Louth was awarded the compensation for an unnecessary symphysiotomy by the High Court in March after a ten-year legal battle with Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. The sixty-year old had undergone the procedure in 1969 while still unconscious from the anaesthesia after doctors at the hospital had successfully delivered her son by Caesarean Section.
It was claimed in the High Court action that there was no justification for the procedure to be performed and, back in March, Mr Justice Sean Ryan found in the victim’s favour and awarded symphysiotomy medical negligence compensation of 450,000 Euros. However, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, claiming that it was not liable for the woman´s injuries on the grounds that the procedure was medically and ethically justified at the time.
The Hospital´s argument was rejected by a five-judge court who unanimously upheld the woman´s symphysiotomy medical negligence claim, although reducing the amount of damages to 325,000 Euros. Announcing the Supreme Court decision, Mr Justice John MacMenamin said that “the procedure was wrong, even by the standards of the time” and that “it was unfathomable by today’s standards and even by those of 1969 had no justification whatever”.
Explaining why the award of damages for the woman´s symphysiotomy medical negligence claim had been reduced, Mr Justice John MacMenamin said that the original award was the maximum allowed for “a person whose life had effectively been ruined”. Acknowledging that the victim had endured very serious injuries, the judge pointed out they did not result in a total inability “to live independently, to work, or to engage in any form of meaningful social life”.