Girl (9) receives €55k for cosmetic surgery after fall on tarmac causes scar to arm

Ray Managh

A judge has approved a €55,000 settlement offer to a nine-year-old girl who faces a future of cosmetically masking a significant mark on one of her arms arising from a fall on tarmac.

A reconstructive and cosmetic surgeon told Judge Roderick Maguire today it would be difficult to treat the scar, which would probably be best concealed with cosmetics when the need arises at a future date.

Barrister Sharbee Morrin, counsel for Callie Rose Reilly, said that at age six she had broken her right arm when she tripped on a defective footpath repair by Dublin City Council near her home at Oriel Hall, Seville Place, Dublin 1.

Mr Morrin, who appeared with O’Hanrahan D’Alton Solicitors, told the Circuit Civil Court that apart from a mark arising from a surgical K-wire repair under general anaesthetic to Callie Rose’s arm, she had been left with a significant graze scar.

Consultant plastic surgeon, Mr Denis Lawlor, told Judge Maguire in written medical evidence that the 5 cm scar from the friction burn to her forearm at her elbow was more significant than surgical marks necessary to insert K-wires to repair the fracture.

Mr Morrin said Dublin City Council had made a settlement offer to Callie Rose, which he was recommending to the court on the basis of an uncertainty with regard to liability. The girl, when she was aged only six in July 2022, had been playing outside her home when she tripped and fell due to a defective footpath repair.

He told Judge Maguire that at one stage there had been a tree at the scene which Dublin City Council had removed and had failed to fill a circular hole flush with the footpath. Callie Rose had tripped on the edge of the repair and had broken her right arm.

The girl’s mother, Charlene Reilly, told the court she had been advised her daughter did not have any functional issues as a result of the injury but had been left with a graze scar. Dr Lawlor had noted she had been left with a pale scar, which would appear to have been the end result of a friction burn from the fall.

Mr Morrin said Mr Lawlor had stated that the pale circular mark left on Callie Rose’s arm was, from a cosmetic point of view, quite significant and a difficult scar to treat.

Counsel felt that while the claim could have been taken in a higher forum, he had taken into consideration the council’s defensive attitude on the basis that the six-year-old had allegedly not been supervised at the time.

Judge Maguire said that, in the particular circumstances, he would approve the €55,000 settlement offer given the liability issue raised in the case.