Month: May 2022

A married couple, who were participating in a fertility treatment regime in a bid to have children, were forced to abandon sexual relations for six months following a needle-stick incident suffered by the husband on a train, the Circuit Civil Court was told today.

Kenneth Flanagan, of Pearse Place, Fairgreen, Limerick, told Judge James O’Donohue that he and his wife had been trying to conceive a child for 18 months prior to a needle-stick injury to his left hand on June 26th, 2015.

He told Mr Gerard O’Herlihy, for Irish Rail, that they had to defer any plans they had for having children from the time of the incident until the early part of 2016 when he had been given the all-clear following ongoing tests for the detection of any blood borne virus.

To read the full story, please visit:
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/married-couple-trying-for-baby-forced-to-abandon-sexual-relations-for-six-months-following-needle-incident-on-train-court-41621528.html

Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) has apologised after a mother died when she fell out of a bed while breastfeeding, her newborn son suffocated beneath her.

Marie Downey broke her neck in the fall three days after giving birth to her third child, Darragh.

The Downey family counsel, Dr John O’Mahony SC, told the High Court this was a profoundly tragic and heartbreaking case. He said that when Ms Downey was removed from the ground in her hospital room her baby was found suffocated. Darragh died the next day at just four days old after suffering an irreversible brain injury, said counsel.

The apology came as Ms Downey’s husband, Kieran Downey (40), of Knockanevin, Kilmallock, Limerick, settled a High Court action over the deaths of his wife and son.

To read the full story please visit:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/hospital-sorry-over-death-of-mother-and-newborn-after-fall-1.4870429

A 12-year-old girl with a life expectancy of six months who had sued over an alleged delay in the diagnosis of a tumour on her spine has settled her High Court action for €675,000.

Her mother, who provides 24-hour care for her daughter, broke down in the High Court as she told how the young girl is “not going to last”.

The girl, who cannot be identified by order of the court, had first gone to a hospital emergency department two years ago complaining of unexplained neck pain but she was diagnosed as having a cyst.

Her counsel, Eugene Gleeson SC, told the court time “is now running out” for the 12-year-old. It was their case that her spinal tumour should have been diagnosed two years earlier and the girl was treated for the wrong condition. Their expert, he said, would say the tumour was always high grade with a “dismal prognosis” of between nine months and three years.

To read the full story please visit:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/terminally-ill-girl-12-settles-action-over-alleged-delay-to-tumour-diagnosis-1.4864659