Passengers on the Luas helped a distraught mother search for the tip of her two-year-old child’s finger following an accident involving a hinged retractable seat on a tram, a judge was told today Monday.
Barrister Nathan Reilly told Judge Michael Walsh in the Circuit Civil Court that the end of Amie Quaid’s left ring finger had been completely amputated in the accident in September 2016.
He said that once the fingertip was found Amie’s mother rushed her daughter to the Beacon Hospital where she was initially treated before being transferred to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin, for surgery.
Mr Reilly, who appeared with Donal T McAuliffe Solicitors for Amie and her father, Eoin Quaid, said surgeons at Our Lady’s had successfully reattached the fingertip and the child had continued to be treated for dressings at the hospital’s outpatient department.
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The court heard that Amie, whose home is in Leopardstown, Dublin 18, had suffered a complete amputation of the tip of her left ring finger. A lady passenger who had been helping Amie’s mother search for the missing piece of finger had found it attached to a hinge on a retractable seat. She had wrapped it in tissue paper and had given it to Amie’s mother.
Amie’s father, who sued tram owners Transdev Dublin Light Rail and tram interior fitters Alstom Transport Ireland on behalf of his daughter, told the court in an affidavit that his daughter had been seated in her buggy which had been parked in the area designated for buggies on the Luas when the accident happened.
Mr Reilly said that while the reattachment of the fingertip had been successful Amie would have a permanent cosmetic deformity of her finger and was seeking compensation for both psychiatric and physical injury.
He said the defendants had offered Amie, who was now aged eight, a settlement of €40,000 which neither she nor her parents were happy with.
“If the court rejects the offer then we will be asking you to transfer the claim to the jurisdiction of the High Court,” Mr Reilly told Judge Walsh.
Judge Walsh allowed the parties time for talks and when Mr Reilly returned to court he said the defendants had made an increased offer of €50,000 which the parents were happy with and which he was recommending to the court. Judge Walsh approved the settlement offer with costs.
