Schoolgirl wins gym injury claim

A teenage schoolgirl was awarded €60,000 in damages by the High Court yesterday over an ankle injury sustained during exercise in the school gym four years ago.

Charlene Byrne, now aged 16, spent four days in hospital, her right ankle remains pinned and she is at risk of arthritis as a result of fracturing her ankle after jumping between two and three metres from gymnasium bars on to mattresses.

Through her mother, Tina, Mourne Road, Crumlin, Dublin, Charlene had sued the Sisters of Mercy Secondary School, Goldenbridge, Inchicore, Dublin, over the incident on October 14th, 2002.

In his reserved judgment yesterday, Mr Justice Barry White said he had no hesitation in finding the school had failed in its duty of care to Ms Byrne. He said he was not impressed by some of the evidence from the school and had found Ms Byrne a truthful and reliable witness.

The judge said he had considered the medical reports and evidence that Ms Byrne sustained a substantial injury to her right ankle. He said the girl had been left in a situation where her ankle was still pinned, presumably for the rest of her life, and with a risk of arthritis.

The judge said common sense and prudence dictated that pupils at that tender age should have been started off on gymnasium bars at a much lower level and gradually permitted to jump from higher points as their technique improved and was perfected.

In her claim, Ms Byrne said that she was 12 years of age on October 14th, 2002, when, while attending a PE class controlled by the school, she was permitted or directed to jump from the gymnasium bars on to two mattresses on the ground as a result of which she suffered severe personal injury.

It was claimed she twisted her right ankle and was later brought by ambulance to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children where an X-ray showed a displaced fracture of the right ankle.

She was kept in hospital for four days where she underwent a procedure.