A claim for damages brought by a man, whose stomach was unnecessarily removed at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin after an incorrect diagnosis of stomach cancer, was dismissed yesterday against a consultant surgeon at the hospital.
The High Court action is continuing against other defendants.
The issue of who is liable for the agreed sum of €450,000 damages to be paid to Alan O'Gorman arising from the procedure, carried out four years ago after a mix-up between a tissue sample from Mr O'Gorman and that of a 70-year-old cancer patient - has yet to be decided by Mr Justice Vivian Lavan.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Mr O'Gorman (26) said the amount of damages had been agreed.
Mr O'Gorman, The Close, Fox Lodge Woods, Ratoath, Co Meath, had alleged negligence in his treatment by the hospital and six other defendants.
They are Ritu Guai Kapur, a pathology registrar at the hospital; three hospital technicians - Robert Geraghty, Bernie Curran and John Harford; Mr Daniel K Sheahan, a consultant histo-pathologist, and Mr Justin Geoghegan, a consultant surgeon at the hospital.
All six defendants had denied the claim.
On Wednesday, the judge was told the case against Mr Sheahan could be dismissed and he made an order to that effect.
Yesterday, after evidence on behalf of the plaintiff had concluded, Patrick Hanratty SC, for Mr Geoghegan, applied for a direction dismissing the case against his client.
Mark de Blacam SC, for Mr O'Gorman, conceded he had not made out a case of negligence against Mr Geoghegan.
Accordingly, Mr Justice Lavan dismissed the claim against Mr Geoghegan.
An issue remains in relation to the hospital's claim for indemnity against Mr Geoghegan and the judge said he would deal with that next Wednesday.
The court has heard Mr O'Gorman collapsed at work on February 14th, 2002, and was brought by ambulance to St Vincent's hospital.
The next day he was brought to theatre where his appendix was removed. An area of inflammation was noted on his stomach, suggestive of a perforated gastric ulcer and a tissue sample was taken and sent for analysis.
It is claimed Mr O'Gorman's tissue sample was mixed up with that of a 70-year-old man, who had cancer.
After analysis of that sample, a diagnosis of cancer was made in Mr O'Gorman's case.
Mr O'Gorman's stomach was removed on March 19th, 2002, as a result but, after the removed stomach was analysed and found to have no evidence of gastric cancer, the mix-up in tissue samples was discovered, the court heard.