Woman tells High Court pacemaker operation was ‘like hell on Earth’ due to pain

A woman has told the High Court she felt she was “being ripped open” during a day procedure to insert a pacemaker in her chest under local anaesthetic at the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork.
Mother-of-three Eileen Tynan said it “was like hell on Earth” and she was hoarse from asking the consultant cardiologist to stop but nobody listened to her during the procedure which lasted more than 50 minutes.
“I could feel pain immediately… I was hoarse from asking him to stop. He said I needed to relax, that my veins were small, and he needed to do the procedure,” she told Mr Justice Paul Coffey.
After the procedure she told the court the cardiologist said “‘well done’ when he was finished, and the nurse wiped my eyes. I asked her why he didn’t stop and she said ‘I don’t know’”.
Ms Tynan, who now lives in Spain, was giving evidence in the first day of her action over the procedure carried out at Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, on July 25th, 2018.
The 68-year-old woman, her senior counsel John O’Mahony instructed by Vincent Toher solicitors said, is claiming she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adjustment disorder as a result of the 53-minute day procedure under local anaesthetic.
Ms Tynan, from Tivoli, Cork, has sued Bon Secours Health System with registered offices at College Road, Cork, and consultant cardiologist Heiko Kindler with an address at The Cork Clinic, Western Road, Cork, over the procedure carried out at the Bon Secours Hospital, College Road, Cork, in July 2018.
It is claimed that there was an alleged failure to provide adequate anaesthesia or analgesia for the pacemaker and there was an alleged failure to respond to Ms Tynan’s complaints of pain and an alleged failure to cease the procedure when it was allegedly clear she was in pain and acutely distressed.
All of the claims are denied and the High Court heard that it will be contended by the hospital and cardiologist side that the pain alleged is not possible and that Ms Tynan been given adequate painkilling medicine during the procedure. It is further claimed that Ms Tynan expressed pain once and was promptly given painkilling medication.
In her evidence, Ms Tynan said straight after the cardiologist started the procedure she felt pain.
“I told him I could feel it and he said okay, take a deep breath and he said my veins are very small and I had to relax.” She said she was in the hospital until 6pm.
“I am a very brave lady and I cried and cried and cried. I could not talk. I was angry and so sad I had to go through it.”
She broke down in the witness box as she told how her three daughters afterwards returned home to Cork to be with her.
“Today is very important to me . Why didn’t he listen to my pleas? I was vulnerable in that room. It was terrible, terrible pain. I felt I was being ripped open and nobody listened to me,” she told the judge.
She said she had nightmares afterwards and “went downhill”. “l would wake up screaming,” she said.
The case before Mr Justice Paul Coffey continues next week.