THE MOTHER of a man who was subjected to a “vicious kicking” during an assault in Limerick city was asked by doctors if she would consider donating her son’s organs, a court has heard.
Adam Hayes (21), Lee Estate in Limerick city, suffered a severe head injury, which required emergency surgery. The attack took place last year at about 6pm near the entrance to a city-centre nightclub.
Mr Hayes, a heroin addict, was “in all probability in a vulnerable state” at the time of the assault, a jury at Limerick Circuit Court was told yesterday.
Michael Kirby (24), Hyde Road, Limerick, has pleaded not guilty to intentionally or recklessly causing harm to Mr Hayes at Michael Street on November 21st, 2008.
Geraldine Teefy-Hayes told the court how gardaí had brought her to the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick where her son was on a life-support machine. “The doctor’s asked me would I consider donating his organs he was so bad,” she said.
The court heard that Mr Hayes was taken to hospital in Cork later that night where he underwent surgery.
In his medical report which was read to the jury, George Karr, a consultant neurosurgeon at Cork Regional Hospital, said Mr Hayes required emergency life-saving surgery “without which he would not have survived”.
John O’Sullivan, prosecuting, said the jury would be shown CCTV footage of the assault on Michael Street in Limerick city near the side entrance to the Trinity Rooms nightclub.
Mr O’Sullivan said it would be clear from the video evidence that Mr Hayes was set upon by two men and it was the prosecution’s case that one of these men was Mr Kirby. “It is clear from the video footage that Michael Kirby administered a most vicious kicking on the injured man.”
Mr Hayes was returned to hospital in Limerick from Cork where he remained until shortly before Christmas.
Tara Whelan, who lived in an apartment on Michael Street, said she called an ambulance after she looked out her window after returning home from work and saw a man lying on the ground who did not seem to be moving.
She saw two men beating a third man who was on the ground.
The trial is due to continue today before Judge Carroll Moran and a jury of 10 men and two women.