A company director, who had to have an emergency operation to remove a fish bone from her throat, has been awarded £15,000 damages against Dunnes Stores. Mrs Julie Fullam, of Castlegate, Castleknock, Dublin, told the Circuit Civil Court she choked on the bone while dining with her two children in the Timepiece Restaurant, St Stephen's Green.
On the first mouthful the bone had lodged deep in her throat and her children panicked and screamed when she started choking. Her counsel, Mr Richard Kean, said she had taken her children from the restaurant and went to her own doctor, who advised her the situation was extremely serious and potentially life-threatening. She had been rushed to hospital for an operation.
Judge Haugh said evidence on behalf of Dunnes Stores that the fish was handled as little as possible prior to cooking and that there had been no precooking inspection for bones led him to conclude Dunnes had been negligent.