A total of €165m was paid out to patients, their families and next of kin by the HSE in the last five years, approximately €67m of which was the result of medical malpractice during birth procedures.
Figures released to the Irish Times under Freedom of Information legislation show that negligent clinical practice, exposure to medication fluids, gases and biological hazards cost the HSE over €3.6m.
Cork eight-year-old Gill Russell received a €13.5m settlement having suffered a “prolonged and totally chaotic” delivery at the Erinville Hospital in Cork in 2006. The resulting cerebral palsy he suffered left him confined to a wheelchair.
Eleven-year-old Bríd Courtney received €11m after suffering brain damage in the maternity unit of Tralee General Hospital in 2003, while Grace Orchard, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was awarded €5.8m and received a public apology from the CEO of Cork University Hospital after it was accepted that her birth at Cork’s St Finbarr’s Hospital was mismanaged.
