{"id":154445,"date":"2025-10-31T02:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T02:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/154445\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T02:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T02:07:10","slug":"man-39-with-locked-in-syndrome-settles-case-at-high-court-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/154445\/","title":{"rendered":"Man (39) with locked-in syndrome settles case at High Court \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Kerry man who is paralysed from the neck down and has severe locked-in syndrome (LIS) following a stroke has had his case regarding a brain scan carried out at University Hospital Kerry settled at the High Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Christopher O\u2019Driscoll cannot speak and is tetraplegic. He joined the proceedings in the Four Courts by video link from the nursing home where he now resides.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Driscoll (39) from Camp, Co Kerry, sued Global Diagnostics (Ireland) Ltd, trading as Medica, with offices at Rockfield Medical Campus, Balally, Dublin. The company, at the time, operated the radiology services at University Hospital Kerry and provided radiology services to hospitals and private clinics.<\/p>\n

It was claimed that there was an alleged failure to diagnose Mr O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s stroke after his collapse at home and when he was rushed to hospital where he had a CAT scan.<\/p>\n

The action was also against the HSE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The HSE is only in the proceedings where it was alleged by the O\u2019Driscoll side that it was responsible in law for alleged acts or omissions on the part of Global Diagnostics Ireland.<\/p>\n

All of the claims are denied in the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds sent the case back to the mediation table after the action had been adjourned several times over two days this week to facilitate talks between the parties.<\/p>\n

At the High Court on Thursday, Mr O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s counsel, Liam Reidy SC, instructed by Cantillons Solicitors, told the court that the case had settled, that all matters were resolved and that the agreement was an \u201cabsolutely\u201d confidential one.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Ms Justice Reynolds said there already had been two days of costs incurred in the case and said she shared the frustration of Mr O\u2019Driscoll in relation to the lack of progress.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, when informed of the case\u2019s resolution, she commended all parties for putting their \u201cbest foot forward\u201d in what would have been a \u201clengthy and complex case\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Justice Reynolds also thanked Mr O\u2019Driscoll for his patience and said she knew that \u201cat times you [Mr O\u2019Driscoll] found the whole process frustrating\u201d.<\/p>\n

Construction worker Mr O\u2019Driscoll, it was claimed in court papers, had been at home in Camp on New Year\u2019s Day 2023 when he suffered an apparent seizure. An ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital, suffering a second seizure on the journey.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Driscoll, it was claimed, was intubated on arrival and a CT brain and intracranial angiogram scan was later performed. On January 3rd, 2023, Mr O\u2019Driscoll was transferred to another hospital where an MRI was performed. It was noted on January 5th, 2023, that, in retrospect, Mr O\u2019Driscoll had suffered a sudden stroke and that he had severe locked-in syndrome \u2013 a rare neurological disorder where a person is paralysed except for their eye muscles, but remains fully conscious and aware.<\/p>\n

It was claimed the CT angiogram report of the scan carried out at University Hospital Kerry on January 1st, 2023 allegedly incorrectly stated that the main artery at the back of the brain was open with no sign of blockage.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kerry man with locked-in syndrome sues over brain scanOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It was further claimed that Mr O\u2019Driscoll had been allegedly denied treatment with thrombolysis \u2013 a treatment to dissolve blood clots \u2013 and there was an alleged failure to prevent the progression of his neurological deficit, as a result of which he has locked-in syndrome.<\/p>\n

In its defence, Global Diagnostics Ireland Ltd claimed that Mr O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s stroke was of such severity that timely treatment by way of intravenous thrombolysis would not have altered the prognosis or lessened his disabilities.<\/p>\n

It had denied it caused a progression of Mr O\u2019Driscoll\u2019s neurological deficit as a result of which he has locked-in syndrome.<\/p>\n

The trial of the action had been set down for six weeks. On Thursday, Ms Justice Reynolds approved the confidential settlement and adjourned the matter to December 18th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Kerry man who is paralysed from the neck down and has severe locked-in syndrome (LIS) following a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,10476,60,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,90277],"class_list":{"0":"post-154445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-high-court","15":"tag-hse","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-university-hospital-kerry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115466341347062933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}