€12,000 workplace injury compensation has been awarded to a garda whose forearm was injured during a fighting incident by a colleague’s tiepin at the High Court.
Legal counsel for Garda Nadine Keane Barrister Maria Lane informed the High Court that her client was in the process of assisting another garda restrain two men involved in a fight outside Ennis Courthouse when the tiepin in question hit her right forearm, inflicting a serious injury.
Appearing with O’Gorman Solicitors, Ms Keane infirmed presiding Judge Justice Mary Rose Gearty that Garda Keane had her injuries tended to at Ennis General Hospital after the incident. It took a total of 13 seri-strips to close the wound and she (Ms Keane) was left with a 6.5cm keloid scar on her forearm. She added that this wound had caused her embarrassment for up to four years.
In 2016, two years after the incident, consultant plastic reconstructive surgeon and anaesthetist Mr Eoin O’Broin reviewed tha wound and found that the scar on her forearm was thickened and red. He said that he was of the opinion that the only treatment that might help address the colour of the scar was laser therapy. Garda Keane had applied bio oil to try to enhance the condition of the scar which was “relatively obvious and unsightly.” The oil only had a minimal effect and Garda Keane was self-conscious of how the scar looked.
She informed Judge Gearty that on October 1, 2014, she had gone to the local courthouse in Ennis, Co Clare, where she was working. A fight began between two men and she had been called to help another Garda in restraining them.
During the struggle her right forearm had got caught another Garda’s tiepin which had cut into her arm. After have treatment administered at the hospital she opted to take three days leave. Judge Gearty told the Court that Garda Keane’s arm had been bleeding and she had been left in a faint condition prior to being taken to hospital. At the hospital the wound had been closed and no further treatment had been advised.
Judge Gearty said: “The scar was more ugly than one might anticipate and was red in colour and relatively obvious and unsightly. A forearm scar is obviously not equivalent to a facial scar and her injury is much less obvious now than it was for the first four years after the incident.”
Judge Gearty, as he was awarding Garda Keane €12,000 workplace compensation, said she had been injured in an unfortunate incident and the court was taking into consideration her embarrassment for the previous four years.