The consultant neurosurgeon who operated on 14-year-old schoolboy Brian Rossiter told his inquest today he believed that the injuries he sustained in an assault over two days before he fell into a coma were the most likely cause of his death.
Charles Marks, a consultant neurosurgeon at Cork University Hospital (CUH), operated on Brian Rossiter in September 2002 to remove a blood clot after he was transferred to the Cork hospital from St Joseph’s Hospital in Clonmel.
Mr Marks told Cork City Coroners Court today that there was a very large blood clot between Brian’s brain and his skull and that he removed the clot during a routine 40-minute operation although he wasn’t very confident that the operation would lead to any recovery.
Mr Marks explained that Brian had suffered an extradural haematoma where there was bleeding from the dura, which is a thin strong membrane between the skull and the brain, and this had led to a puddle of blood gathering between the skull and the brain.
This in turn had put pressure on the brain and had resulted in Brian lapsing into the unconscious state in which he was found in a cell at Clonmel Garda Station on the morning of September 11th 2002, the inquest heard.
Asked by Cork City Coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane as to when he thought Brian Rossiter suffered a fracture of the skull which led to extradural bleeding, Mr Marks said he believed it was most likely to have been due to injuries he sustained in an assault on September 9th.
"I know you have my report. I concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that the trauma he sustained 56 hours before was the most likely cause of his extradural haematoma and his death. How certain am I? I am not at all certain but that is my conclusion.
"I don't think there was a further significant trauma and from what I heard of headaches that is enough for me to explain his deterioration that morning," said Mr Marks. The inquest before a jury of four men and four women continues.