A clip placed on the middle cerebral artery of a Co Leitrim man who underwent surgery for an enlarged blood vessel in his head left him paralysed down his left-hand side, a consultant neurosurgeon told the High Court yesterday.
Prof John Pickard of Cambridge said that if the clip had not been attached, he believed Mr John Rooney would not have been damaged to the extent he had been, or at all.
Prof Pickard said he was sorry to say that the condition of Mr Rooney (45), a former art teacher, of Keenaghan, Carrick-on-Shannon, was unlikely to improve.
Mr Rooney has told the court he was left paralysed on the lefthand side of his body when he awoke after an operation performed on him by a neurosurgeon, Mr Fergus Donovan, at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, on April 23rd, 1987.
The operation was for the removal of an arterio-venous malformation (an enlarged blood vessel) in his head. Mr Rooney claims he lost his job as a school art teacher because of his disability and is now living on £75.50-a-week disability allowance.
He has taken an action for damages for alleged negligence against Mr Donovan and the board of management of the hospital. Both deny the allegations.
In court yesterday Prof Pickard said there were risks in performing the type of operation carried out on Mr Rooney, but there were also risks to his health and life if it were not done.
A competent brain surgeon would never tell a patient that an operation to remove an AVM would prevent epilepsy, he said. In choosing not to carry out surgery, the patient should be told there was a risk of brain haemorrhage and that death might occur.
It would be wrong to describe the type of operation carried out on Mr Rooney as minor, the witness continued. In carrying out such an operation, a patient should be told there was a risk of a stroke-like condition or even death. It was very complex surgery.
Cross-examined by Mr John Fitzgerald SC, for the defence, Prof Pickard said that even in the best surgeons' hands, and where they were behaving properly, it was possible for a stroke-like condition to prevail.
The hearing resumes on Tuesday.