A GARDA sergeant has claimed before the High Court he is blind as a result of alleged failure to diagnose promptly a serious infection of the eye linked to wearing contact lenses.
Niall Fitzpatrick (47), a father of two from Boher, Co Limerick, has sued the Health Service Executive and a consultant eye specialist, Raymond Niland. The defendants have denied the claims.
Mr Fitzpatrick, who was in court yesterday with his wife Michelle, was on the brink of being promoted to head of a Garda drugs squad at Limerick’s Henry Street Garda station before contracting the condition in 2005, the court heard.
Opening the case for Mr Fitzpatrick, Liam Reidy SC, said the first symptoms of the garda’s condition began in June 2005 and his eyesight had deteriorated dramatically three months later.
Mr Reidy said Mr Fitzpatrick was seen on 11 occasions from his first meeting with an ophthalmic registrar at the AE unit of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick on June 12th, 2005, until his admission to the hospital on September 8th, 2005.
During those three months, all those who saw his client failed to take “the most preliminary step towards diagnosing him” by taking a swab of the eye, counsel said.
Mr Reidy said doctors continued to treat Mr Fitzpatrick for a viral keratitis when his condition later turned out to be acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) – a serious corneal infection of the eye linked to wearing contact lenses.
Mr Reidy said the AK condition was well recognised by 2005 and was known to result in blindness unless diagnosed and treated early. If the diagnosis of AK had been made earlier Mr Fitzpatrick, who had been wearing soft contact lenses, would have made a full recovery, counsel said.
Outlining the background, counsel said Mr Fitzpatrick had a sore and red eye and mentioned it to his wife, Michelle, who worked as a nurse in St John’s Hospital in Limerick. She got drops to put in his eye.
On June 12th, the couple were driving back from a family outing in Clare when Mr Fitzpatrick got “a blinding pain” in his eye and his wife drove him straight to the accident and emergency department at the Mid-West Regional Hospital in Limerick where he was referred to the eye department.
The ophthalmic registrar who saw him on that occasion believed he had a viral keratitis infection, counsel said.
The case continues today before Ms Justice Mary Irvine.