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Updated 20.20
THE HOSPITAL IN which a young man who suffers from cerebral palsy was delivered 22 years ago has apologised ‘unreservedly’ for the treatment there that led to his injuries.
The High Court today approved an interim payment of €4.1 million as settlement of a medical negligence action brought on behalf of the now 22-year-old brain-damaged man.
The settlement was made in favour of Andrew Whelan who will require full time care and special accommodation for the rest of his life.
This evening the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group issued an apology on behalf of Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise:
“On behalf of the HSE and the management and staff at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise, we wish to express our deepest and unreserved apologies for the failings that caused the injuries to Andrew Whelan and the consequent trauma experienced by him and his family,” the statement reads.
The hospital sincerely regrets the tragic consequences of these failings and the suffering that they have caused to the Whelan family.
We fully understand that neither this apology, nor the financial compensation granted by the court, can undo the suffering experienced by the family.
In his action seeking damages arising out of the circumstances of his birth it was claimed a delay in delivering Andrew had caused his injuries.
Through his mother Mrs Angela Whelan, of Church View, Nurney, Co Kildare Andrew sued the HSE and Dr John Patrick Corristine, an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist who then practised at Portlaoise General Hospital, for negligence arising out of the circumstances of his birth on 5 August 1993.
Damages
Counsel for Mr Whelan, Andrew Denis McCullough SC, said the settlement was against both defendants. The action was due to be heard as an assessment of damages only, but following talks the parties reached a settlement which includes an interim payment of €4.1 million to Andrew plus his legal costs.
The settlement is to cover costs including the provision of ongoing care, aids and appliances for Andrew over the next 10 years.
Paul McGinn BL for the defendants said his side was consenting to the settlement.
The settlement was approved by Mr Justice Anthony Barr, who agreed to adjourned the matter until February 2026. The Judge said he had no hesitation in approving the settlement.
In a statement issued through her solicitor Mr Noel Sheridan Mrs Whelan said while money “cannot repair Andrew’s brain or enable him to walk” the settlement will “at least improve his quality of life and remove some of the families worries for his future care”.
Severe disabilities
Mrs Whelan said in her statement that because of what had happened to him Andrew had been “denied an opportunity of living a healthy, active and normal working life”. She also asked why had it taken some eight years for Andrew’s case to be resolved.
In the action against the HSE and Dr Corristine it was claimed that Mrs Whelan was referred to Portlaoise Hospital after becoming pregnant in late 1992. Her estimated due date was 12 July 1993. She was not admitted until 4 August and Andrew was delivered by caesarean section the following day, 5 August 1993.
She claimed the defendants were negligent for causing her to go 24 days beyond her estimated due date, and for failing to deliver Andrew within 14 days of his estimated due date.
It was also alleged the defendants delayed in the delivery of Andrew and failed to respond to the presence of abnormalities during his mother’s labour.
It was also alleged the defendants failed to to respond to the signs of foetal distress in a reasonably timely manner, and failed to recognise the need for, or to call for, medical opinion or intervention in and around the time of Andrew’s birth.
It was further alleged the defendants caused Andrew to suffer chronic partial asphyxia and cerebral palsy. The defendants also allegedly failed to exercise the skill expected from competent doctors and failed to provide reasonable care to his mother.
Counsel told the court it was their case that Andrew’s injuries could have been avoided “with proper care and management”. Counsel told the court Andrew is now a wheelchair-user and his physical and mental disabilities are severe.
Andrew cannot speak but can communicate, by making sounds, with others. He is able to interact with his family and is close to his mother. He had attended school until he was 18 but now spends several days a week at day care, which he enjoys, counsel said.
Counsel said that due to his injuries Andrew has and always will require full-time care. His family believed the settlement was “fair and reasonable in the circumstances”, counsel added.
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
Originally published 19.36
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“the terms and conditions of that agreement are not under my control” really minister are you not part of a government which agreed the Haddington road programme?
Precisely, the terms of the HRA cannot be up for grabs as any concession to ASTI would annoy the rest of the unions as well as DPER. A face saving mechanism for ASTI is needed so they can go back to the minority of their members who have been sufficiently unhappy to vote for action.
Ciaran, Kerry is not referring to the HRA.
The HRA was rejected by the ASTI – while the gov doesn’t want to give concessions to the ASTI, the ASTI are not responsible for the fact that the gov have failed to deliver an agreement that doesn’t bully.
The agreement referred to in the story is the agreement discussed to solve the current impasse. Quinn cannot expect an agreement from the ASTI without assurances – would you?
I must be stupid Tony, “that agreement” seems to refer to the HRA from my reading of the article.
I will bow to you..
what kind of “assurances” would Quinn be getting from the ASTI?
Apologies Ciaran, I’m mixing up my reading of this with my reading of another news source of the same story where there was mention of coming to an agreement in these recent talks.
I don’t think it’s very fair to say that the terms are what workers in the private sector would particularly want for themselves. There’s only on term about teaching that attracts me, the holidays. Other than that, the prospect of working in a difficult environment with a lower, non negotiable salary and with zero review of myself and my colleagues’ output where the lazy are treated as badly or as well as the motivated, is absolutely repulsive.
There are plenty of front line jobs in the public sector I’d love to do, but these days there just isn’t enough incentive.
The only of the front line services in the public sector that I would consider is as a teacher. Gardai, Firemen and possibly Nurses (I don’t know for certain but I assume it’s not an easy post) have an awful time and although they enjoy certain perks associated with being a public sector employee it seems fair enough because they’re jobs that are not very appealing to a lot of people.
Teaching on the other hand would seem like an ideal lifestyle choice for me. Only a very small amount of class time a week during school terms with the rest completed at my own discretion (still less than my typical 45-50 hour week I’m sure). Incredible holidays during the summer with nice breaks throughout the year in October, December, February and at Easter. The wages aren’t amazing (unless you think about it logically that you’re paid for about an 8 month job) but with exam marking and of course some cash in hand private tuition you can earn some extra.
It’s a good profession with a great work life balance, a guaranteed pension at the end of it for and if you’re a good teacher I’m sure you get great satisfaction out of the positive impact that you have on the formative years of a childs life.
Shows what you know about teaching. Nothing.
Why are you not a teacher so ????
Sorry Alan I haven’t mentioned anything that isn’t true. You may have some other ideas on it but I haven’t said anything that is factually incorrect.
Pete if I could go back now and do it all again I would certainly have went down this route but at 29 I believe I’ve come to far on my accountancy career to turn back. Also the popularity of teaching has meant that it’s very difficult to nail down a full time position due to the masses of people flocking to this career.
Ah Ted come on sure there is a shortage of maths teachers then you could have all those holidays and the abuse you get from teenagers all day and all those hours of fun meeting parents till ten at night. Oh and all your student coming to you with there problems which are a lot. Drugs pregnant being gay. Then u can bring them home to try help them tell there parents.
I hope you’re not an English teacher Pete.
Ps I am a caretaker in a school trust me ted teachers do a lot more than u think. No way on this earth would I do it. I will say there is bad teachers but the most are great to the kids
Teaching is a nice little woman’s job. They probably get sick of all the attention from the local farmers though
Each day that goes by, this country becomes more and more of a mess.
Worst noting that the current situation actually saves the state money so that should please the bottom line brigade of morons on here. Most teachers perfectly happy to be finished with pointless Croke Park hours. New Junior is a joke and is deservedly being resisted. But the same fools who objected (rightly) to us being forced to vote again and again on European treaties will happily put the same bullschite agreement in front of teachers until they give the right response. Not going to happen.
Did anybody notice the sly way that he pitted the public vs private sector in the article. Government playing the media to its advantage yet again
Those labour party are like lambs to the slaughter they keep putting their sell out ministers in front of the camera.They should be hiding like their friends in fianna GAEL.
Just fire them 10 at a time until they mend their attitude- perfect solution
Thankfully we live in a country with laws rather than a facist dictatorship.
If things are getting this bad it seems inevitable that a lot of teachers will leave the profession due to such high levels of dissatisfaction. What will we do then? To survive such an eventuality we would need thousands of young, motivated graduates just itching to get themselves into teaching positions, but alas…. (Somehow doubt a single teacher would leave the profession over this, deep down they know how sweet they have it even if they won’t admit it.)
My brother is a permanent teacher working in Dublin and is leaving for oz next August.
Not trying to wind u up silent majority it is just a fact…
Fair enough, but there aren’t exactly huge numbers leaving the profession which is always the best indicator of conditions. Look at banking for example, conditions worsened for employees after 07/08 and huge numbers have changed career paths. IT on the other hand is offering very good remuneration & conditions relative to other industries and there is a rush to get into that industry (not necessarily in Ireland but that is more due to skills shortages than desire). There are not very many teachers changing career paths, and in fact we have an oversupply as evidenced by the number of NQTs trying to enter the profession – this is indicative of teaching enjoying superior pay & conditions relative to other professions which require similar standard of qualifications. (I assume this will just red thumbed by teachers with none even attempting to counter the arguments, but red thumbs do not change facts.)
I agree with you to a certain extent. I just think with the IT skills you’d have working in a bank it would be easier to change jobs compared to a teacher (just my opinion, completely open to correction there)
One question for you before I finish: in a civilised society do you think that groups of people should have to leave their jobs before something is done about the problem in that job?
Oh, and yr way off when you mentioned our superior pay by the way, that just ain’t true
I said superior pay & conditions, the two have to be taken as a unit effectively. So while your job security, long holidays, and early finishing times may not have an easily quantifiable monetary value, they do have a value to teachers themselves. Conditions like these are always taken into account by prospective applicants, whether consciously or otherwise.
To answer your first question, sometimes but not necessarily. Generally, if pay and conditions got so bad in a sector people would leave, and more importantly, no new entrants would be attracted. This will force the the pay and conditions up as the roles still require human input. All industries are competitive, in that they are all competing for human resources. The opposite of this is the case in teaching however, with an oversupply of human resources in spite of what incumbents decry as poor pay and conditions. This contradiction would appear to indicate that the pay and conditions of teachers remain superior to other roles that require a similar level of qualification.
Also, having non-transferable skills is not a reason to demand better remuneration, quite the opposite in fact. And teachers all have primary qualifications, so a one year conversion course and they can do most things. This is the option most bankers pursued, not just transferring existing skill sets to new roles. Those in the building industry did not have this luxury, so your skill set isn’t as non-transferable as you might think.
Meh
Dah!!! Career change to what exactely? If there were options there would be mass exodus. Noone can just change career in Ireland now. Remember the celtic tiger!!! Teaching jobs and substitution staff couldnt be found for love nor money esp in maths and science! Teaching careers were not so attractive then…
For a crap job..theres a lot staying in at it..i think they should spend a month doing a job swap with a private sector worker to get some perspective
Anthony I’ll do a job swap with you then you can see how ‘easy’ teaching is!
Unlikely he’d last longer than ten minutes before running out screaming.
A real live-wire today, aren’t we, Matthew F!
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