A woman who was told by a surgeon that he had made a mistake and operated on her left big toe when it should have been her right big toe has secured €50,000 and costs in her High Court action for damages.
Ms Emma Jayne Counihan (27) had sued the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght, Dublin, which admitted liability and the case was before the court yesterday for assessment of damages only.
A project manager working in London and a native of the Channel Islands, Ms Counihan was living at Cypress Downs, Templeogue, Dublin, in 2000 when she developed a pain in her right big toe.
Mr Declan Doyle SC, for Ms Counihan, said she was diagnosed as having a benign tumour (ostoid osteoma) in her right big toe and was admitted to Tallaght hospital on January 4th, 2001, to have the tumour removed.
She was given a general anaesthetic. Unfortunately, they started operating on her left big toe instead of the right one, counsel said.
They had drilled into the bone of the left toe and removed a piece of the bone before realising there was nothing wrong with that toe. They put the piece back in layers and proceeded to operate on the right big toe while Ms Counihan was still under the anaesthetic.
Ms Counihan in evidence said the operation had been carried out by a surgical registrar who, after she awoke from the anaesthetic, told her there had been a mistake and that he had operated on her left foot. She felt in a lot of pain in both feet and had been quite shocked at what had happened.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Kearns said what had happened on this occasion was every surgeon's nightmare and the hospital had met the case very fairly. Immediately after the operation, the mistake was frankly admitted and liability conceded.
The judge said Ms Counihan had suffered quite significantly. She had had the psychological trauma of waking up and realising that instead of having had an operation on one foot, she had had an operation on two.
She had been totally immobilised for some weeks afterwards and had been in considerable pain when staying in a flat during the days while her flatmates were out working. When she returned to work, she had to hobble around on her heels and required a lot of assistance from work colleagues. Unfortunately, there was a further mishap when the site of the wound on the left big toe became infected and that took a further six weeks to heal, he said.
The judge, who examined Ms Counihan's left big toe, said that she had a noticeable scar and would be limited in the footwear she could wear. He awarded her €50,000 and costs and granted a stay in the event of an appeal to the Supreme Court on condition that the hospital pay €30,000 over immediately to Ms Counihan.