Boy left brain damaged after operation receives €3.5m

Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin has given a "heartfelt" apology at the High Court to a four year old boy left profoundly brain damaged after an operation at the hospital when he was a baby.

The apology was read as part of a settlement of four-year-old Jude Miley’s action which involves an interim payment of €3.5million to meet his care needs over the next two years.

Emily Egan SC turned to face the child’s parents before reading out the statement in which the hospital offered an “unequivocal, unreserved and heartfelt” apology to Jude and his family for what had happened. The hospital “appreciated and greatly regretted the huge trauma” suffered, the statement added.

The case will come back before the court in 2018 when Jude’s future care needs will be assessed.

Jude, from Upper Kilmacud Road, Dundrum, Dublin, was six months old when a suture used in an operation to release his diaphragm and help his breathing remained untrimmed, causing damage to a heart muscle.

Two days later, he had a heart attack and was rushed for emergency surgery which saved his life.

Through his father Greville, Jude sued the hospital. He was born on July 16th 2011 and by January 2012 a condition regarding the contour of his diaphragm was diagnosed. The surgery was carried out on January 24th 2012 and it was alleged it was below the standard of care.

Pierced

Liam Reidy SC, for the family, said the baby's heart was being pierced by the suturen and Jude's mother, Anne Louise Miley, a public health nurse, had raised concern about her son after the operation but these were dismissed.

In evidence, Mr Miley said he and his wife thought their son was unwell after the operation but they felt they were ignored.

He said they were also told their son would be in a vegetative state but as a result of therapies in the UK and US he can now walk and run, talk and eat normally, although slowly.Friends had set up a trust fund for Jude which allowed the family to travel to the US and the UK for therapies for Jude, he said, adding that the boy “is the happiest child I know”.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Kevin Cross commended the Miley’s for their care for their son.

‘Fussy’

In a statement outside court, the parents said their concerns after their son’s operation were dismissed “as those of fussy parents” but their son had sustained permanent and catastrophic brain damage.

They criticised a “lack of honesty and frankness” on the part of the hospital and said they were lead to believe what had happened was “simply an unfortunate complication of the operation”.

“We were told it was just ‘one of those things’. We later learned this was certainly not the case,” the statement said.

They said the legal system had worked for Jude but what did not work for him “was the failure of the hospital to engage with us and the legal system in an honest open and integral fashion”.

“If they had done so, our journey would have been so much easier and Jude rehabilitated far sooner.”