Michael Boylan LLP secured €341,000 in damages for a bile duct injury following a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
In the days following surgery, our client experienced severe pain and started to ooze bile from one of the port sites, with bruising over the site. A CT of the abdomen and pelvis demonstrated extensive upper-abdominal and pelvic fluid, fluid surrounding the spleen, fluid in both pericolic gutters, in the cholecystectomy bed and right hepatic space, and within the small-bowel mesentery. Surgical clips were noted in the gallbladder bed, and a small haematoma was identified at the right upper-quadrant port site.
At his family's insistence he was transferred to another hospital with biliary sepsis. He was treated with antibiotics and fluids. A further CT showed extensive fluid in the abdomen, and he underwent a laparoscopic biliary washout with three drains left in situ before being transferred to ICU. He subsequently developed biliary sepsis and abscess formation and was transferred to a Dublin hospital for ongoing critical-care management and a prolonged admission.
Our client has suffered physically and psychologically as a consequence of his injury and has ongoing pain and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The defendants admitted negligence and breach of duty but did not admit that this caused our client to suffer bile leak, biliary sepsis and biloma requiring percutaneous drainage and ICU treatment. The action settled for €341,000 together with all legal costs, after a second mediation.