Today, The Irish Times reports on page 4

Delivery man injured when mattress lifted by wind awarded €380,000 – Van driver claimed he hurt his back after being dragged along for four metres.

The man had sued the company that employed him, Etmar, (and of whom his brother is a director) for damages.  

You can read the full article, published online yesterday, here.

The judge said “he must conclude, from medical evidence, Mr Homan has chronic pain and on most occasions his pain is in the range of three out of 10 and, though chronic, is not usually severe”, according to the paper. The judge concluded, according to the Irish Times, that “the accident occurred due to Etmar’s breach of statutory duty and negligence. It failed to assess any risks, to train Mr Homan and warn him of the hazards” (…) of carrying mattresses.

Now — to the best of my knowledge nobody in the HSE ever assessed the risk to Pádraig of not receiving specialist, regular, and ongoing therapy. According to all the evidence available to me, Pádraig would most likely have been physically and mentally damaged had we not designed and paid for an ongoing inclusive neurological rehabilitation programme ourselves (with incredible support from family and friends). In accordance with common sense does that not amount, at least, and with the greatest respect, to negligence and a breach of statutory duty on behalf of the agency responsible for health care and, more specifically, for Pádraig’s health care, in this country?

My ongoing, chronic pain, on a scale of one to 10, is seven, with regular spikes to 10.

Luckily, the sun was shining upon us today and we had a brilliant few hours in the garden in the company of a good friend and her son who also has a very severe acquired brain injury. Life cam be good.

Later in the afternoon, Pádraig had the second swim this week. The improvements in his body control are incredible. They are small but constant. It is now possible to get him into and out of the water with just one person, and to do the paddling, the exercises, and the walking in the water as well with just one person. — In order to practice walking, the pool is nearly ideal as the water takes away so much of our weight that we can concentrate on the movements without having to worry about being able to carry our full body weight. Obvious, yes — but incredible no-one ever told us about this and no-one ever recommended and facilitated those visits to the pool.

Maybe no-one can’t? Maybe it’s us who have to do the important stuff in our lives ourselves? Always?