A High Court judge has rejected claims by a farmer that Cork University Hospital had failed to return his wife’s brain to him after a postmortem was carried out on her following her death at the hospital.
Dermot Finn’s wife Noreen (58), Faha, Killarney, Co Kerry, died in April 1997 two months after undergoing brain surgery at the hospital. Mr Finn sued the Southern Health Board, two neurosurgeons, Timothy Buckley and Charles Marks of Cork University Hospital and a Killarney GP, Dr Miriam McCarthy.
The case was settled against the other defendants this week on terms including a partial concession of liability and payment of €300,000, plus costs. The action against the Southern Health Board proceeded yesterday.
Mr Justice Éamon de Valera said he accepted the evidence of a hospital pathology technician that he had returned the brain in a casket to Mr Finn a few weeks after the postmortem.