Mother’s €5m for negligence

Hospital missed brain clot

A MOTHER of three was left partly paralysed and almost blind after a hospital failed to recognise the symptoms of an aneurysm, the High Court heard yesterday.

Bernadette Surlis, 60, from Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, was confined to a wheelchair and in a nursing home after the incident at Sligo General Hospital in November 2013.

Her counsel, Michael Cush SC, told the court there was a delay in diagnosing and treating an aneurysm, and it ruptured as a result.

Mrs Surlis suffered a brain haemorrhage which caused the significant and permanent injury.

He told Mr Justice Kevin Cross the HSE had admitted liability, had offered €5million to settle the case and had apologised to the family.

The court heard Mrs Surlis was referred to hospital by her GP, fearing she might be having a stroke.

Once there, she was not treated as a priority and a doctor said her headache and eye swelling were caused by an infection.

The court heard she was seen by an ophthalmologist the next morning who said it was definitely not an eye problem, and ordered scans.

Following an MRI, staff told the family she had an aneurysm and should be transferred to Beaumont Hospital for urgent treatment.

But there was a further delay and Mrs Surlis collapsed when the aneurysm ruptured.

The court heard that if she had been moved to Beaumont when she first went to hospital, she probably would have been treated successfully and have made a full recovery.

Mr Cush said Mrs Surlis had been in 24-hour care since and her ‘overriding ambition’ was to go home.

Speaking outside court, her daughter Carla said: ‘This means that this part of the nightmare at least is over, and she can come home where she belongs.’