Settlement of €17,500 approved for girl whose arm was impaled on Phoenix Park railings

A judge has approved a €17,500 settlement offer for a four-year-old Galway girl whose left arm was impaled on two steel railings at the Phoenix Park Tea Rooms in July 2015.
Barrister Kate Kennedy told Judge Fiona O’Sullivan in the Circuit Civil Court on Thursday that the settlement offer had been made on behalf of the Office of Public Works, which is responsible for management of the park.
She said proceedings against Angela Butler and Helen Cunningham, operators of the tea rooms, could be struck out, and was granted judgment against the OPW together with Circuit Court costs.
Ms Kennedy told the court that the injured Síomha Kennedy, who will be 14 next month, had fallen in the outdoor seating area of the tea rooms which are surrounded by a spike-topped metal fence.
Síomha, who sued through her mother Fiona, of Shantalla Road, Galway, had fallen against the steel railings and the inner part of her upper left arm was impaled on two spikes, causing double puncture wounds.
Ms Kennedy, who appeared with solicitors Kennedy Fitzgerald, said the extremely distressed child had been taken to the children’s hospital in Crumlin where she had been detained for four days during which she had her injuries sutured under general anaesthetic.
She had suffered significant trauma and had developed anxiety about hospitals and doctors which had made her post-accident care exceptionally difficult. While attending her GP for follow-up treatment after the incident she would not go into her doctor’s surgery and had to be treated in the waiting room.
Ms Kennedy, who recommended acceptance by the court of the OPW’s offer, said Síomha had two significant visible scars following the incident but the wounds had healed well and were in an area not regularly visible to other people.
The judge said Síomha had suffered quite a nasty accident and the court felt the settlement offer was very fair and reasonable. She was happy to approve the settlement and grant judgment against the Office of Public Works only. She struck out the proceedings against the two operators of the tea rooms.