A woman who claimed her "tissue paper thin" skin was torn from parts of her legs and ankles while under anaesthesia, has failed in a €38,000 medical negligence action against the Blackrock Clinic in Dublin.
Mr Justice Esmonde Smyth told Noel Cosgrove, counsel for the clinic, that Attracta Foy (66) had failed to show she had been handled negligently by nursing staff.
The court heard Ms Foy, Rathingle, Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, was still under anaesthetic after having undergone a successful minor operation on her left wrist in August 2004. When she had been brought out of the anaesthetic, she claimed she had discovered damage to her skin.
She claimed damages for alleged post-operative negligence by theatre nurses, telling the judge they had roughly handled her legs and ankles during the insertion of a painkilling suppository following surgery.
Ms Foy told the court she suffered from emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for which, in order to stay alive, she used an inhaler and two prescribed medications which contained steroids.
She had told her counsel, Eileen McAuley, that the thinning of her skin had been caused as a side effect of the steroids.
She constantly had to avoid brushing against people or objects and avoided such things as shaking hands.
Before undergoing the operation for a blocked tendon in her wrist, she had answered questions in a pre-operative form and had outlined the delicate nature of her skin.
Mr Justice Smyth said the clinic had presented uncontroverted expert medical evidence that the practice of lifting a patient's legs to insert a suppository, even in cases of patients who had paper-thin skin, was customary in the clinic and in other hospitals.
He made no order as to legal costs.