A paediatric hospital has unreservedly apologised and agreed to pay €5 million to the parents of a two-year-old girl who suffered brain damage after being transferred there after her birth.
Kitty Mae Hayes, from Rosscarbery, Cork, has the highest level of cerebral palsy, visual impairment and epilepsy.
Her senior counsel told the court there were “repeated egregious failings in care” at the Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) hospital in Crumlin.
Liability was admitted in the case. The €5 million interim settlement is to cover the next four years.
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The apology from the CHI interim chief executive Fiona Murphy was read out as Kitty Mae settled her High Court action.
It apologised for “deficiencies in the care provided to your daughter Kitty Mae at the hospital resulting in the severity of injury sustained by Kitty Mae and the consequential distress and trauma suffered by you”.
It added: “We acknowledge and deeply regret the life changing circumstances for Kitty Mae and her family and the devastation and suffering endured as a result of these circumstances.”
The case had been before the court for assessment of damages only.
Kitty Mae had been transferred to CHI Crumlin after her birth in Cork on October 13th, 2022, because of a systolic heart murmur. A vascular malformation, which is a rare vein abnormality, was discovered inside the brain.
Her senior counsel, Jeremy Maher, told the court the condition was easily treatable with an embolisation of the vein but “repeated failures led to devastating consequences”.
It was their case that embolisation of the vein should have taken place within days of November 5th, 2022, said Mr Maher, instructed by Cian O’Carroll solicitors.
He said the public health system does not meet the needs of children with cerebral palsy and Kitty Mae’s parents have had to travel to Poland, Canada and the UK for therapies for their daughter.
Her mother, Lisa Ronan, who was in court with her husband Declan Hayes, told the court of the immense toll on their family as they fought for justice for their daughter.
Kitty Mae had through her mother sued CHI. Nervous shock actions by Kitty Mae’s parents have still to come before the courts.
Ms Ronan said her daughter had her first seizure on the evening of November 5th and continued to have “seizure after seizure for four weeks” and was given anti-epileptic drugs.
She said she asked with “tears running down my face were they doing the right thing” and her daughter had been let down. She said she and her husband were given minimal information and left on their own.
On November 28th, an MRI scan showed profound widespread white matter injury to Kitty Mae’s brain and she said a doctor asked were they still willing to do the embolisation of the vein. Ms Ronan said they “of course” wanted it done.
She told Ms Justice Denise Brett: “Just because something is rare, it’s not a good enough for reason.”
Outside court in a statement the family said what followed after they brought their daughter to the Children’s Heart Centre in CHI Crumlin four days after she was born was " a nightmare sequence of errors.”
They said they were reassured and told confidently by senior consultants that the vein malformation would be treated effectively by neurointerventional radiology at another hospital and “how fortunate” Kitty Mae was to be a patient in the Children’s Heart Centre which they boasted to was the “best ward in the best hospital in Europe”.
The statement added: “We pleaded with them to take her clearly deteriorating condition more seriously. Above all we are haunted by that inability to get them to listen to us.”
Kitty Mae’s case will come back before the courts in four years’ time when her future care needs will be assessed.
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