A High Court judge has found there was a failure by Naas General Hospital to properly maintain a forceps which fractured during an operation on a woman.
A piece of metal lodged in her abdomen as a result.
Mr Justice Gilligan ordered the South Western Area Health Board to pay €60,000 and costs to Ms Annemarie Fanning of Clonmullion, Athy, Co Kildare, arising from her treatment at Naas hospital on February 28th, 2000, for keyhole surgery.
During the procedure, a forceps, known as an allis grasper, was used. One of the jaws of the instrument broke off during the operation. Despite attempts to recover the piece, the surgeon had to convert the keyhole operation to an open operation and found the metal under the right side of Ms Fanning's liver.
In a reserved judgment on Ms Fanning's action for damages, the judge said he preferred the evidence of an expert who believed that a multiplicity of corrosion pitting on the whole surface points of the forceps had pointed to insufficient cleaning of the forceps. The expert concluded that the failure of the forceps was induced by corrosion pitting caused by insufficient cleaning.
A stay on the judge's order was granted in the event of an appeal.