The Supreme Court granted Michael O'Driscoll leave to appeal on whether a judge should have stood down, on 15 December 2015.
He sued, through his mother, Michael Hurley and the Health Service Executive.
It concerned an appendectomy negligently performed at Kilkenny Hospital on 28 January 2006, when he was eight.
He needed bladder repair surgery and eight extra days in hospital.
The High Court assessed damages over four days before O'Neill J. in February 2013.
It awarded him €50,000 for general damages, for pain and suffering to date.
The judge made no award for future loss.
He found any ill-effects of the surgery were now in the past.
Mr O'Driscoll appealed the amount of damages to the Court of Appeal.
He also asked that Irvine J. stand down from hearing that appeal, alleging objective bias.
He pointed to her chairing a conference run by the solicitors defending the appeal.
Those solicitors specialise in defending medical negligence claims and acted for the State Claims Agency, he said.
The Court of Appeal refused that application on 8 July 2015.
It dismissed his appeal on damages and ordered him to pay the respondents' costs.
The respondents said the bias allegations lacked merit.
The Supreme Court said it is not a court of error correction.
It found he had met the constitutional threshold on the recusal issue alone.
The question certified is whether a judge is disqualified from sitting on the grounds alleged.
Leave was refused on his complaint about the cross-examination of an expert witness over fees.
He had said a urologist relied on by the trial judge was paid €10,000 for giving evidence.
The Supreme Court said the Court of Appeal had already considered that ground carefully.
It also refused leave on his argument about injuries the trial judge did not mention.
It called that essentially a matter of fact.