Wexford-based garda Awarded €15,000 in Thumb Dislocation Compensation following sustaining injuries while attending to a house call in relation to a party in Wexford town.
Garda Barry Hennessy told the court that, as a keen golfer, he now has to use pain killers in cold weather has been awarded €15,000 personal injury compensation in the High Court for the injury he sustained.
During a Garda Compensation hearing Garda Hennessy told Mr Justice Michael Twomey that the injury does affect his life aside from sometime suffering pain and stiffness.
Now aged 36, Hennessey told his barrister David Richardson he was called to a house in Clonard Village, Wexford, that in June 2009 as loud music from there was disturbing locals.
Upon reaching the house he had found the door open so he entered and found a man lying on a couch. A second individual came in he started to roar and shout.
Garda Hennessy told the Court that he had been jostled and struck in the face. Subsequently, when he tried to make an arrest, his left thumb was pushed back and dislocated.
At that point Garda Hennessy withdrew as he had seen that there were golf clubs and a fishing rod in the apartment. A colleague brought him to Wexford Hospital when he returned to the garda station. Here his thumb was manipulated under local anaesthetic. His thumb remained in a cast for several week and Garda Hennessy was absent from work for a few weeks.
Garda Hennessy told the Court: “There is nothing I cannot now do with my thumb but when it involves lifting something or gripping something it can still be painful. I have had to take pain killers before playing golf”.
He added that he had been advised that he should have surgery to help the injury. However, he chose not to do so.
Judge Twomey awarded Garda Hennessy €15,000 and revealed in the announcement that he (Garda Hennessy) had not undergone physiotherapy or opted for the other treatments that were available to him.