{"id":538440,"date":"2026-07-08T01:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/538440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T01:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:43:11","slug":"metal-work-would-protrude-from-her-shoulders-or-back-girl-11-settles-spinal-implant-case-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/538440\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Metal work would protrude from her shoulders or back\u2019: Girl (11) settles spinal implant case \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 11-year-old girl who sued after she was implanted with an unapproved spring during spinal surgery at a Dublin<\/a> hospital has settled her High Court<\/a> action with a \u20ac950,000 interim payout.<\/p>\n

Nellie Lannen\u2019s action is the first such case to come before the High Court since the controversy around the metal springs used at Children\u2019s Health Ireland Temple Street<\/a> in three child surgeries came to light.<\/p>\n

Nellie has spinal muscular atrophy and has been treated at the hospital since her diagnosis when she was six months old.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Judge Paul Coffey was told that a breach of duty was admitted by Children\u2019s Health Ireland<\/a> in the case, but causation remained an issue.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kilfeather, counsel for Nellie instructed by Michael Boylan solicitors, told the court that a metal structure \u201clike a coat hanger type of device\u201d was inserted at the little girl\u2019s spine.<\/p>\n

He said the surgery had been described to Nellie\u2019s parents Stephen and Brigitta Lannen as experimental, but were told it was required because her spine was bending over. Counsel said Nellie was in severe pain after the operation and needed morphine.<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen Lannen, Nellie’s father. Photograph: Collins Courts <\/p>\n

A rod on the left side of the spine had pushed through her pelvis causing it to shatter and she required 14 more operations afterwards, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe metal work would protrude from the top of her shoulders or back. It happened once when the family were on holiday in France,\u201d counsel told the court.<\/p>\n

An expert on the Lannen side would say that it was entirely unreasonable to perform surgery with the spring system and that the implant used was untried and untested, counsel said. It was their case that fusion surgery should have been carried out instead to help the girl.<\/p>\n

Counsel said Nellie has now been left in a worse situation and is not able to have the surgery for her spine.<\/p>\n

Nellie, from Churchtown, Dublin, had, through her mother Brigitta, sued Children\u2019s Health Ireland over her care at Temple Street hospital between 2020 and 2023.<\/p>\n

The girl had bilateral rod insertions at Temple Street hospital in October 2020 when she was five-years-old.<\/p>\n

It was claimed the surgery caused her significant pain and suffering and resulted in a total of 14 remedial type surgeries and procedures between 2020 and 2023, including protruding spinal rod management.<\/p>\n

Nellie\u2019s claim related to the use and implantation of a non-CE spring which it was claimed is supported by the findings of an investigation carried out by CHI, the HSE<\/a> and the Health Information and Quality Authority<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The interim settlement is for the next two years when the case will come back before the courts when Nellie\u2019s future care needs will be decided.<\/p>\n

Outside court, Nellie\u2019s father Stephen said that while they are very pleased with the settlement which will help them improve the quality of care for Nellie into the future, this did not deter from the fact that Nellie was \u201crobbed of her only opportunity to get the correct surgery\u201d. <\/p>\n

As a result he said her quality of life will be significantly worse and her life expectancy has been severely curtailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe deserves so much better than the care she received. We are obviously very angry that she has missed the opportunity to have the correct surgery,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 11-year-old girl who sued after she was implanted with an unapproved spring during spinal surgery at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30791,615,42642,1418,73,61,60,43,127509],"class_list":["post-538440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","tag-dublin","tag-health-information-and-quality-authority-hiqa","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-temple-street-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}