Woman gets €6.5m for misdiagnosed haemorrhage

A woman who had a brain haemorrhage misdiagnosed as migraine and is now confined to a wheelchair with paralysis in both legs and one arm has secured €6.5 million in settlement of her High Court action.

The action was taken by Kathleen Myers (49), a civil servant of The Garth, Belgard Heights, Tallaght, who is a ward of court, against St James's Hospital, Dublin, arising from her treatment there.

The hospital initially denied neglligence but conceded liability last February and Mr Justice Daniel Herbert, after a nine day hearing to assess damages, was told today by Denis McCullough SC, for Ms Myers, the hospital had offered €6.5 million in settlement and he was recommending that figure be approved by the court.

Mr Justice Herbert said Mr McCullough was perfectly correct to recommend the offer and the court was perfectly happy to approve it.

Ms Myers is a patient in a unit attached to St Mary's Hospital in the Phoenix Park, Dublin and was made a ward of court in December 2007. The court had heard she wished to return home and part of her claim was for monies to meet the cost of future home care.

The case arose from events on March 19th 2005 when Ms Myers suddenly developed a severe headache. A doctor sent her by ambulance to St James’s hospital where she was seen and assessed. A tentative diagnosis of migraine was made and blood tests were organised.

Ms Myers was discharged on medication and advised to see her family doctor for a follow up.

Subsequent to her discharge, it was claimed Ms Myers was found collapsed and unconcscious at her home on the afternoon of March 21st and was rushed by ambulance to hospital in Tallaght where a brain scan recorded a large haemorrhage and she was transferred to Beaumont Hospital.

On March 22nd, an aneurism was located and eliminated by a clip repair method but, despite this, Ms Myers’ brain was swollen, it was claimed.

Had a CT scan been carried out within a 24 hour period, it would have shown blood and Ms Myers would have been moved to Beaumont Hospital for the necessary procedures to be carried out, it was contended. Ms Myers would not have gone on to have her second catastrophic bleed and would have made an excellent recovery and been rehabilitated back into her former employment, it was claimed.

Mr McCullough said the diagnosis at St James’ was unfortunately not correct, as the hospital now admitted, and Ms Myers had a second haemmorrhage. He said very frank admissions were made by an accident emergency consultant at a family meeting, it was admitted a mistake had been made and Ms Myers had not been treated as she should have been.

Ms Myers’ family had argued she had a right to be cared for in her home environment rather than in a hospital setting and claimed cutbacks in the health service had resulted in her not receiving enough physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

At the outset of the case, the hospital argued the family was proposing to build a “mini hospital for one” and their expectations were unrealistic. The court was told today the award included the cost of providing a house for Ms Myers.

After the case, Ivan Rafter, a brother-in-law of Ms Myers, said the family was glad the case was over and the funds secured would be put towards Ms Myers future care. Mr Rafter added the family wished to pay tribute to their solicitor, Michael Boylan, for his “exceptional assistance” throughout.