Austin Dowling, aged 59 of Tallaght, County Dublin, has settled a claim for damages with the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Tallaght. Like the vast majory of workplace injury claims, the claim was settled before it went to court. The amount of the settlement was not revealed and there was no admission of liability from the hospital.
Austin Dowling is a mortuary porter at the hospital and claimed he hurt his should after lifting a dead man from a hospital bed into a concealment trolley in January 2005. Dowling claimed he suffered loss of movement and pain in his right shoulder that required surgery.
The claimant alleged negligence and breach of duty by the hospital. His claims included lack of a safe system of work, failing to provide proper equipment/machinery to lift a body by failing to provide a roller board to slide a body onto a trolley. He also claimed the trolley was unsafe and he had not received specific training for the type of concealment trolley involved.
Lifting injuries are one of the most common workplace injury claims.