The High Court awarded Gina Van Amersfoorth €855,793.40 after finding that injuries from a negligently performed laparoscopy in 2002 caused years of abdominal pain, constipation and psychological distress.
The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Cross on 1 June 2017 in a personal injuries action against John Corristine and the Midland Health Board. The defendants had admitted breach of duty in causing a trocar to puncture the plaintiff’s right common iliac artery, but had not admitted liability for all the consequences she claimed. The disputed issue was whether her continuing symptoms and losses were caused by the operation.
During the procedure at Portlaoise Hospital on 4 June 2002, the plaintiff suffered damage to her right distal iliac artery and right common iliac vein. She lost about eight pints of blood, underwent emergency surgery and required intensive care and life support. The court accepted that her abdominal pain and constipation began soon afterwards and continued.
The defendants argued that her symptoms were consistent with irritable bowel syndrome, caused principally by later stresses, and that opiate medication worsened her constipation. The judge preferred the evidence of the plaintiff’s treating and expert witnesses that nerve damage from the operation caused her ongoing pain. He found that the operation also caused her constipation, which had been aggravated by pain medication since about 2009.
The court accepted that she had post-traumatic stress disorder for a period after the operation, though she was no longer suffering from it at the time of judgment. It also found she continued to have depressive symptoms principally related to her physical pain, while recognising that later financial stress contributed. The judgment attributed some of her back pain to arthritis and described any operation-related back pain as, at most, partial. It found the incident was the principal, though probably not the only, cause of marital disharmony.
The court allowed €155,793.40 for special damages, including agreed past and future expenses and housekeeping costs. It disallowed €10,500 sought for future abdominal surgery, finding she was unlikely to undergo it. It awarded €100,000 for past loss of earnings and €300,000 for future loss, finding she would probably have returned to managerial work in retail in Ireland. General damages were €200,000 for pain and suffering to date and €100,000 for future pain and suffering.
The judgment totalled these awards at €855,793.40 and held that the amount was fair and reasonable. The source records judgment in that sum; it does not specify a separate order on costs.