Girl discharged ‘without specialist assessment’ after inhaling peanut settles for €60,000

A toddler brought to hospital amid fears a peanut went the wrong way down her throat was allegedly discharged without specialist assessment, with the peanut remaining “in situ for over two months” before she suffered a collapsed lung, the High Court has heard.

Alice Gernon’s condition deteriorated and two months after the first hospital visit, she was X-rayed at another hospital and underwent emergency surgery. Counsel said peanut fragments were removed from the two-year-old’s left lung.

The girl, who is now over six years of age, on Friday settled a High Court action for €60,000 against Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) as a result of the care she received at the emergency department of Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin, in 2019. The girl, of Carlanstown, Kells, Co Meath, had sued through her father, Alan Gernon.

She was first brought to the hospital on May 11th, 2019, as her mother was concerned a peanut had gone down the wrong way into her windpipe. She was brought back to the hospital six days later but, it was claimed, she was discharged again without further investigation.

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The girl’s senior counsel, Jeremy Maher, told the court experts on their side would say it was clear when she was brought to Temple Street on the first and second occasion that she should have been referred for specialist assessment which would have led to the identity and removal of the peanut.

Counsel said that by July 2019 the girl’s condition had deteriorated, and it was a very serious situation.

A GP referred Alice to another hospital where a chest X-ray showed she had a collapsed left lung and left-sided pneumonia.

She had to have emergency surgery and fragments of peanut were removed from her left lung. She was in hospital for nine days.

She claimed there was a failure to carry out an adequate examination of her condition.

There was also an alleged failure to perform a chest X-ray or a bronchoscopy and an alleged failure to identify that peanut fragments were lodged in her lung.

There was also an alleged failure to refer her for ENT (ear, nose and throat) review or specialist respiratory review.

Counsel told the court that in September 2019 the hospital had apologised in a letter to Alice’s parents, saying her case would now become a teaching case and that any child brought to the hospital with suspected foreign body aspiration would be referred for specialist investigation.

Mr Maher said Alice has made an excellent recovery.

Approving the settlement, Mr Justice Paul Coffey said it was fair and reasonable and he wished Alice and her family all the best for the future.