HSE fails to get ambulance birth case from 1977 struck out

THE Health Service Executive has lost a legal bid to strike out a case brought by a woman who claims she was left severely disabled following her birth in an ambulance in 1977.

The HSE had tried to have Claire O’Sullivan’s personal injuries case dismissed on the basis that a fair trial was not reasonably possible after such a long lapse of time.

However, High Court judge Kevin Cross has ruled that there is enough evidence to fill any gaps caused by incomplete records, and has said the case can proceed to a full hearing.

He said Ms O’Sullivan claimed she was physically and mentally incapacitated due to the HSE’s negligence in the circumstances of her birth on May 9, 1977. She has alleged that her mother went to the Carrick-on-Suir Hospital in Co. Tipperary on May 8, and told a ‘Nurse Anthony’ there of a bleed that she had during the previous night. The judge said the hospital was a small local facility.

Ms O’Sullivan’s mother was admitted, and in the night had a further bleed, the court heard. The judge said the night nurse, a Ms Cox, phoned the doctor in charge and he arranged for the plaintiff’s mother to be taken to Clonmel Hospital. An ambulance drove the 30-minute journey from Clonmel to collect her. ‘On its return, as they approached Clonmel, the plaintiff was born in the ambulance and she and her mother were apparently both ill, and subsequently the plaintiff suffered significant seizures,’ said Judge Cross.

He added: ‘There is no doubt the records in Carrick-on-Suir Hospital taken in 1977 are not as they would be today.’ But he said there were nursing records signed by both Nurse Anthony and Nurse Cox, who could both potentially provide evidence.