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FROM HEALTH BOARD
Charlestown man became deaf after cancer treatment By Tom Shiel A young Charlestown man who became totally deaf after he was admitted into hospital for treatment for leukaemia has settled his case against the Western Health Board for an sum which is believed to be in the region of £500,000. The settlement was approved at the High Court in Dublin after Niall Gallagher (aged 25) of Airport Road, Charlestown sued the Health Board and Dr. Ernest Egan after it was alleged that excessive doses of the drug Amikacin were administered to him at University College Hospital, Galway between March and October 1985. One of the terms of the settlement was that the compensation would not be revealed . The Irish Medical Times claims £500,000 was awarded but the amount is dispute by sources close to the Gallagher family. The court heard of the distress and trauma Mr. Gallagher had experienced when as a 12 year old he had gone to hospital to receive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. He made an excellent recovery from the leukaemia but following his treatment he was left with profound deafness which had a massive psychological affect on him. EMOTIONAL LOSS Mr. Gallagher spoke of the emotional loss he suffered after he lost his hearing and said doctors at the hospital would not explain to him what was going on. "I thought I was going mad", he said. He was critical of the way he had been treated by the medical profession. "Doctors made life very difficult wherever I went", he said. "They did their own thing". Mr. Gallagher's GP Dr. Philip Cawley, a former President of the Irish Medical Association, said his patient had coped very badly after he became profoundly deaf. "He became cranky and aggressive and generally difficult to deal. It did not surprise me. He felt very hurt". Dr. Cawley said Mr. Gallagher had told him that nobody at the hospital would talk to him while he was being treated by different people for different complaints.
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